Influence of arteriolar hyalinization on arterial intimal fibroplasia in the renal cortex of subjects in the United States, Peru, and Bolivia, applicable also to other populations.

Microvasculopathies of nephrosclerosis progress with age in contrasting patterns. Arterial intimal fibroplasia (R(r) and R(c), respectively, in small and large interlobular arteries) previously showed close linkages to hypertension and to "nephrosclerosis," defined by fibrous replacement of atrophied nephrons, whereas hyalinization of arterioles (Hy) failed to show consistent linkages. In this study, renal samples from seven populations, three newly assembled and four reassessed from archived data, were evaluated for R(r), R(c), and Hy in forensic autopsies of basal subjects (ie, those lacking conditions known to correlate with hypertension or nephrosclerosis, mostly deaths by violence).

The action of aging upon coronary intima and renal microvasculature in USA and Andes populations.

Full lengths of right coronary artery obtained at autopsy and examined in hematoxylin and eosin stained paraffin sections sometimes reveal the presence of at least one instance of atheroma (YesA specimens). YesA specimens are nearly always those with generalized intimal fibroplasia, measured by excessive intimal thickness per smooth muscle cell. Accumulating evidence suggests that aging governs the progression of fibroplasia, and that this fibroplasia is what aging does to the coronary artery in preparation for atheroma.