[Morphologic studies for quantifying arteriosclerosis]

After application of a semisynthetic diet enriched with 0.5% cholesterol, hypercholesterolemia was produced in nine New Zealand rabbits. After 92 days the aortas were divided into 10 segments and analyzed using morphological methods. We used a computer-assisted morphometric method that was developed for measuring arteriosclerotic lesions of the vessel wall (length and area of plaques) within single aortic segments. We observed a proximo-distal segmental pattern of arteriosclerotic lesions of the aortic wall. The highest extent of atherosclerosis was found in the aortic arch, decreasing in extent in thoracal and abdominal regions. Our results show that segmental measurements of the aorta are necessary to analyze the extent of atherosclerosis reproducibly.