RELATIONSHIP OF BEHAVIOR PATTERN A TO STATE OF CORONARY VASCULATURE - A STUDY OF 51 AUTOPSY SUBJECTS

The coronary arteries of fifty-one autopsy subjects (previously enrolled in a prospective study of 3,295 men) were studied to determine the possible relationship between the nature and intensity of the atherosclerosis present and the type of behavior pattern exhibited by these subjects during their life. It was found that subjects who while living exhibited a particular behavior pattern (type A) succumbed to coronary artery disease six times more frequently than subjects who exhibited a converse pattern (type B) during their life. The former subjects also exhibited, irrespective of the actual cause of death, severe basic coronary atherosclerosis six times more frequently than the latter subjects. The subjects who died of coronary heart disease also had exhibited during life a significantly greater average serum cholesterol, triglyceride and beta: alpha lipoprotein ratio than those who died of extracardiac causes. © 1968.