PRIMARY OBLITERATIVE PULMONARY ARTERIOLAR SCLEROSIS

Abstract

My purpose in this report is to present the unusual anatomic manifestations of obliterating arteriolar sclerosis of the pulmonary vessels in the absence of significant sclerosis of the systemic vessels. Atheromatous change in the pulmonary vessels occurs frequently in persons affected by a generalized arteriosclerosis. The presence of atheromatous plaques in the larger pulmonary vessels without marked systemic arteriosclerosis likewise is fairly common. However, such pathologic change can scarcely be considered significant. Almost invariably when pulmonary arteriosclerosis is capable of causing symptoms, it exists as arteriolar sclerosis, and it may be assumed that the significant vascular lesions referred to by writers describing the disabilities of patients involve the arterioles. In a series of more than 3,800 autopsies at the New Haven Hospital, the present case is the only one of its kind. The infrequence of the anatomic picture is attested by MacCallum¹in a report of a similar case,