Coronary Angiographic Findings in Correlation with Age, Body Weight, Blood Pressure, Serum Lipids, and Smoking Habits

Radiological findings by coronary angiography in 224 patients, 173 males and 51 females, were graded according to the rate of filling of coronary arteries and to the presence or absence of obstruction of vessel lumen. The material was then grouped according to age, diastolic blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, serum glycerides, and smoking habits. Age and diastolic blood pressure were not found to have any influence on frequency of coronary artery changes, presumably because of selection of patients. In the males, elevated total serum cholesterol had only a minor influence on the frequency of coronary artery changes, while elevated glycerides were found in high frequency in patients with obstructed coronary arteries, especially in those with severe obstruction. If patients put on lipid-reducing therapy or diet were added to those with serum cholesterol higher than 280 mg/100 ml, a slight overrepresentation of coronary changes was found when compared with patients with total serum cholesterol equal to or lower than 280 mg/100 ml. The influence of elevated total serum cholesterol was in all instances inferior to that of elevated serum glycerides. Smokers showed the frequency of coronary changes the same as or higher than patients with elevated glycerides. The influence of smoking was evident also within classes of low or elevated serum lipids. While all conclusions must be interpreted with reference to the material selected as the source of our data, the importance of smoking as a causative agent independent of serum lipids appears conclusive.