Aortic Ruptures in Egg-fed Fowls

Abstract

Brown leghorn fowls were fed from hatching on a diet consisting essentially of boiled eggs. Among 174 such chicks there were 3 cases (17 per cent) of aortic rupture, but in 17 birds fed the egg diet for the second generation there were 4 such cases (23.5 per cent). All ruptures occurred in the thoracic aorta, near to and involving the brachio-cephalic arteries. There was no evidence of dissecting aneurisms, although in 2 additional birds saccular aneurisms were observed in the thoracic aorta. The degenerative medial changes believed to be responsible for the ruptures were somewhat similar to Erdheim’s medial necrosis of man and unrelated to atherosclerosis. The earliest changes were seen in the connective and elastic tissue, although later the smooth muscle of the media was severely involved, having become hypertrophied and degenerated.