Evaluation of sex and segment differences in spontaneous avian aortic arteriosclerosis

¹ Department of Poultry Science, Rutgers, the State University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Thoracic and abdominal arteriosclerosis was measured in 42-month-old males, females, capons and poulards which had been maintained on a non-atherogenic' diet. Visually scored severity of lesions among segments and sexes was compared to severity estimated from aortic cholesterol and hydroxyproline concentrations and from blood pressure and plasma cholesterol levels. Aortic cholesterol was highly correlated with plasma cholesterol level, and aortic hydroxyproline with blood pressure. Better relationship to visual scores resulted from either a combination of the two aortic measurements or from the two blood measurements than from any single factor. However, thoracic aorta cholesterol had to be given more weight than thoracic hydroxyproline concentration in evaluating thoracic severity and conversely, abdominal hydroxyproline given more weight than abdominal cholesterol concentration in evaluating abdominal lesions. Similarly, plasma cholesterol had to be given more weight than blood pressure in evaluating thoracic severity and blood pressure more weight than plasma cholesterol in evaluating abdominal lesions.