Relation between Aortic Atherosclerosis and the Use of Cigarettes and Alcohol

Examination of 1019 consecutively autopsied white patients who underwent standardized interviews before death, demonstrated no statistically significant relation between aortic atherosclerosis and the use of alcohol. However, a graded and statistically significant increase in the severity of aortic atherosclerosis was found with increasing use of cigarettes measured by both intensity (packages per day) and duration (number of years of smoking). Selective biases in the formation of the study population and faulty collection of historical data have, we believe, been excluded. These findings thus confirm and augment earlier studies of a relation between aortic and coronary atherosclerosis and cigarette smoking.