Flow Patterns and Preferred Sites of Atherosclerosis in Human Coronary and Cerebral Arteries

Using transparent segments of arteries prepared from humans postmortem, flow patterns and the exact anatomical locations of atherosclerosis in major arteries of the human coronary and intracranial cerebral circulations were studied in detail by means of flow visualization and cinemicrographic techniques. It was found that in both coronary and cerebral arteries, atherosclerotic plaques and wall thickenings were localized exclusively on the outer wall (hip) of one or both daughter vessels at major bifurcations and T-junctions, and at the inner wall of curved segments where flow was either slow or disturbed and formation of secondary and recirculation flows were dominant.