ABSTRACT
M uch interest has focused in recent years upon the obstructive, atherosclerotic process that often appears in arterial vessels serving organs trans planted between allospecific or xenospecific individuals. The lesions concerned were first convincingly identified in kidneys trans planted to patients as early as the nineteen fifties.1 Particular note was also made of impressive arteriosclerotic changes that appeared promptly in the coronary arteries of the first hearts transplanted in South Africa.2 These coronary lesions raised special concern as the potential lethal consequences of lesions in this location were readily appre ciated. Since then it has been recognized that these progressive and frequently severe lesions are a central feature of what has been termed “chronic rejection”. As such, they clearly con tribute to the ongoing functional impairment of any affected organ even though this may not take the form of sudden death as it can with coronary occlusion.
