A study of correlation of the extent and severity of atherosclerosis in the coronary and cerebral arteries and between their individual branches has been undertaken in 200 consecutive medicolegal autopsies. The coronary atherosclerosis developing first in the second decade appears about 20 years earlier than the cerebral atherosclerosis. There is, however, a significant correlation between the coronary and cerebral arterial beds. There is a significant interbranch relationship within the coronary system. The atherosclerotic process starts earliest in the left anterior descending branch of the coronary arteries. The extent of correlation is more marked between the two branches of the left coronary artery than that of either of them with the right coronary artery. The interbranch relationship in the cerebral arterial bed also shows a significant correlation. Basilar artery shows the maximum atherosclerosis, next in order being middle cerebral artery; the postcerebral artery shows much less affliction to the atheroma and the anterior cerebral artery exhibits a high degree of freedom.

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Clinical, demographic and laboratory data from infants with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) born in the Australian state of Victoria from the commencement of neonatal screening in mid-1977 until December 1988 are reported. These provide a baseline for a 12-year prospective longitudinal study on physical and neuro-psychological outcome until mid-1997, the subject of a second paper. Infants with CH were detected using a primary TT4 screening test. Demographic data were collected prospectively using a clinical assessment protocol. Nearly all affected infants underwent 99m Tc pertechnetate scanning at the initial assessment to determine the underlying aetiology of their hypothyroidism. 704,723 infants were screened and 199 with permanent primary hypothyroidism (one in 3,541) were identified. The most common aetiologies were thyroid ectopia (46%), thyroid aplasia (33%), and 'dyshormonogenesis' (11%). The clinical abnormalities classically described in CH were more evident in infants with aplasia, and the striking female preponderance in infants with thyroid dysplasia (syn. dysgenesis) was confirmed. Other features included increased frequencies of 'dyshormonogenesis' in infants of parents of Middle-Eastern origin and of labour induction in infants with dysplasia. A closed posterior fontanelle was not found in any infant with thyroid aplasia.

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