[Erdheim's disease: morphogenetic problems]

Structural studies of resistive vessels in a 21-year-old woman who died in the postpartum period from rupture of the aorta in the presence of Erdheim's disease are described. Histological, histochemical, and immunomorphological methods were used, and microcirculation was examined in film preparations of adventitia treated with silver nitrate by Kupriianov's method. In the media of the aorta and the proximal parts of its large branches, nonspecific necrobiotic processes were in evidence, believed to be due to lesions in the microcirculatory bed of the vascular wall.