Objective: To investigate the pathology characteristic of femoral atherosclerosis through the comparision among femoral, carotid and coronary atherosclerosis.
Methods: 15 elder autopsy cases were selected. Serial sections of femoral artery, carotid artery and coronary artery of all the cases were taken. Part of the tissue sections were selected for immunohistochemistry staining. Three markers against alpha-smooth muscle actin, CD68, and bax were performed respectively.
Results: On the whole, both femoral and coronary atherosclerosis had a similar pathology characteristic in the lesion style and the distribution of smooth muscle cells and macrophages in the plaques. In comparing with the coronary atheroma, there were more smooth muscle cells and less macrophages in the femoral atherosclerotic plaques, expression of bax in macrophages stronger, and the expression of bax in smooth muscle cell was weaker. The pathology characteristic of femoral and carotid atherosclerosis was somewhat similar.
Conclusions: The pathology characteristic of atherosclerotic lesion in femoral artery was principally consistent with that of the coronary atherosclerosis except some differences presented in certain indexes.