ABSTRACT
The internal elastic membrane, the residual lumen, and each component of plaque were traced manually and the actual area was calculated using a computerized morphometry system. The patient is not the first with Buerger's disease to have the status of the coronary arteries described at necropsy. Leo Buerger described many of the clinical and morphologic features of the disease, which he called thromboangiitis obliterans in 1908. He also was the first to describe the status of the coronary arteries in the disease. Several cases stated to have coronary artery disease in Buerger's disease were excluded from our analysis because of the lack of histologic study of the coronary arteries or because the patients were >50 years of age. Admission coronary angiogram showed 70% diameter narrowing of both the right and left anterior descending coronary arteries, and repeat angiogram 4 weeks later showed both of these coronary arteries to be normal.
