Cerebral atherosclerosis in Japanese. Part 4: relationship between lipid content and macroscopic severity of atherosclerosis.

In order to evaluate chemically the macroscopic scoring methods for severity of arteriosclerosis in the cerebral arteries, concentrations of total lipids, esterified and free cholesterol and lipid phosphorus were compared to the macroscopic severity of lesions in the cerebral arteries obtained from 376 Japanese persons after unexpected death. An increase of cholesterol content was correlated significantly with an increase of Baker's score and/or Gore's atherosclerotic index. The correlation coefficient between Baker's score and total or esterified cholesterol was the highest among the tested correlations (r = 0.82, n = 376).