Juvenile atherosclerosis and Reye's syndrome.

Four patients, three girls and one boy, ages 8 to 14 years, with clinical and pathological findings of Reye's syndrome, were found to have an unusual degree of intimal thickening in the coronary arteries and advanced fatty streaks in the aorta. It is suggested that viral infection or metabolic abnormalities may have played a role in their development. A careful examination of the cardiovascular system in children with this and other diseases of probable infectious etiology is emphasized.