İntimal changes of dog arteries caused by electromagnetic field

Objective: İn developed populations the increasing trend of electromagnetic pollution survives in an insidious and dangerous dimension. Although estimating the negative effects of electromagnetic field on human organism is very difficult, assessment of their effect on arteries was aimed in this experimental study. Material and Methods: An electrical shaver was choosen as a source of electromagnetic field which was estimated as having a 5-10 gauss electromagnetic field. The shaver was directly performcd on skins of left common carotid and bilateral femoral arteries of 7 Street dogs, weighing meanly 20-25 kg, vvithin a mean period of5months. This was performed on one time in every week with a period of 7 minutes. Totally, 18 periods were performed. At the end of the study carotid and femoral arteries were excised for histopathological examination. Results: Tissue examples of 21 study and 14 control specimens were examined under light microscope. İn study group 8 examples had moderate and 7 examples had severe intimal changes, while in control group 3 examples had mild intimal changes. A chi square test between these groups were considered significant (p<0,05). Conclusion: Endothelial injury and subendothe- lial seperations were significantly found in a very short period. These changes may cause stroke due to athero­ genesis on carotid arteries in a longer period.