Relationship of small and large coronary artery disease to myocardial ischemia.
To determine the relative roles of narrowing of the small intramyocardial arteries and of the large extramural coronary arteries in the development of ischemic myocardial lesions, hearts were obtained at the autopsies of 105 adults for morphologic study. Subendocardial ischemic lesions frequently were associated with narrowing of the small arteries even in the absence of major coronary artery stenosis. However, transmural ischemic lesions occurred almost always with large coronary artery disease, either alone or in combination with narrowing of the small arteries. A logistic function was fitted to the data to predict the risk of developing myocardial ischemia. The probability of ischemic heart disease was shown to rise with increasing heart weight, narrowing of the small intramyocardial arteries, major coronary artery disease, and combined small and large artery stenosis.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001158:Arteries / Q000473:pathology*; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000473:pathology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D009336:Necrosis; D009929:Organ Size; D012306:Risk