Thickening of Walls of Arterioles and Small Arteries in Relation to Age and Smoking Habits

In five independent studies fibrous thickening of the arterioles and arteries were studied microscopically in men who died and came to autopsy. The locations were the trachea and main bronchi, the esophagus, the stomach wall, the pancreas and the adrenal glands. One specimen each from 925 to 1025 subjects taken at autopsy were studied for the adrenal gland, stomach wall and pancreas. A total of 8764 esophageal sections from 918 subjects and 5566 tracheobronchial sections available from previous studies of epithelial changes were also independently studied for vascular thickening. The microscopical findings were analyzed according to smoking habits and by age. It was found that in all five locations the degree of fibrous thickening tended to increase with age, tended to be considerably greater in cigarette smokers than in nonsmokers and tended to increase with amount of cigarette smoking.