Werner's Syndrome and Arteriosclerosis

Eight patients, including one autopsy case, of Werner's syndrome were examined to find out clinical and pathological characteristics of arteriosclerosis in the syndrome. Moderate atheromatous lesions (accumulation of lipids, proliferation of cells and extracellular matrix components, and spotty calcification within the intima) of the aorta, coronary artery and basilar artery were found in the autopsy case, and the lesions did not seem to be essentially different from so-called atherosclerosis. Eight patients of the syndrome were all found to have one or more of the following risk factors of the development of atherosclerosis; abnormal lipid metabolism, diabetes mellitus, hyperuricemia, hypertension and smoking. It was also revealed clinically that they had all suffered from more advanced arteriosclerosis than expected as their ages. However, it is still unclear that the pronounced atherosclerosis seen with the patients of the syndrome is only due to the presence of the above mentioned risk factors, which are common in them, or there may be other unknown factor(s) for the development of atherosclerosis in Werner's syndrome.