This landmark autopsy study demonstrated that gross evidence of coronary atherosclerosis was already present in 77.3% of young American soldiers (average age 22.1 years), indicating that coronary disease begins early in life.
Recently we1presented a paper describing the gross lesions found in the coronary arteries of American soldiers killed in Korea. This series consisted of 300 men with an average age of 22.1 years. In 77.3% of the cases some gross evidence of coronary disease was demonstrated that varied from minimal eccentric thickening to complete occlusion of one or more of the main coronary branches (fig. 1A). The locations of the lesions indicated that the hemodynamics of the coronary circulation, as modified by the variations of the coronary arterial tree, is one of the factors in coronary disease (fig. 1CandD). The purpose of this paper is to present all available clinical data concerning the cases studied and to discuss the histopathology of the lesions. MATERIAL All the clinical data were obtained from photostatic copies of the induction physical examinations or were taken from the emergency medical
William F. Enos (1955) studied this question.