Figure 4.

The relationship between aortopathy severity and microcalcification. A, Patients with mild (Wilcox with Bonferroni correction, P=0.00010) or moderate (Wilcox with Bonferroni correction, P=0.042) histopathologic aortopathy severity had more microcalcification than control samples. Those with severe disease had less microcalcification content than either mild (Wilcox with Bonferroni correction, P<0.0001) or moderate (Wilcox with Bonferroni correction, P=0.0030). B, In aortopathy samples, there was an inverse relationship between histopathologic disease severity and microcalcification content (Spearman ρ, −0.51; P<0.0001). C through K, Representative examples of hematoxylin and eosin (C, F, and I), elastin van Gieson (D, G, and J), and von Kossa (E, H, and K) in mild, moderate, and severe histopathologic disease, with minimal microcalcification coinciding with near total elastin loss in severe disease.