Body Weight, Cerebral Atherosclerosis and Cerebral Vascular Disease: An Autopsy Study

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Abstract
The severity of atherosclerotic involvement of intracranial cerebral arteries was assessed at autopsy in 3,315 adult subjects. Ponderal index values were calculated for each sex and ten-year age group. In most age groups, subjects with cerebral vascular disease, or one or more of several conditions known to be associated with increased cerebral atherosclerosis, had higher relative body weight than did subjects without those conditions. Subjects in the lower quartile of ponderal index distribution ("overweight" group) had more severe cerebral atherosclerosis than did subjects in the upper quartile ("underweight" group). However, when subjects with disease conditions known to be associated with increased cerebral atherosclerosis were excluded from the analysis, no relationship between relative body weight and severity of cerebral atherosclerosis could be demonstrated. Clinical and/or pathological evidence of cerebral vascular disease was apparently present more often in "overweight" than in "underweight" subjects, at least in certain age groups.