Aging and Coronary Atherosclerosis in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease

To determine the relationship between aging and the degree of coronary atherosclerosis in symptomatic ischemic heart disease (IHD), coronary angiograms of 197 patients with IHD (160 with myocardial infarction and 37 with angina pectoris) ranging between 34 and 75 years of age were evaluated. The degree of coronary atherosclerosis was evaluated in terms of the severity of stenosis (number of segments with more than 75% luminal reduction) as well as extent (number of segments with wall irregularity irrespective of degrees of luminal reduction), and was correlated with age and three major risk factors (smoking, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia).The extent of coronary atherosclerosis was significantly related to age (r=0.62, p>0.01), while the degree of stenosis did not show any correlation with age. Neither the number of risk factors nor the degree of coronary atherosclerosis was related to age.These results suggested that in IHD the extent of coronary atherosclerosis increases with age, but the severity of the coronary stenosis does not.