OBJECTIVE To determine the relationship between cardiovascular pathology and body fat distribution in healthy women with no ante mortem clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease. METHODS Thirty-three female forensic autopsy cases of sudden death from violent causes. METHODS Body height and weight, the circumferences of the waist and hip and the thicknesses of the subscapular and abdominal subcutaneous fat were measured, and Body Mass Index (BMI) and Waist-to-Hip ratio (WHR) were calculated. Omental, mesenterial and perirenal fat deposits were weighted. Heart weight was indexed to height (2.7), the degree of coronary narrowing was determined in each artery, and myocardial collagen volume fraction and myocyte cross-sectional area were measured. RESULTS The degree of coronary narrowing, heart weight in absolute terms and indexed to height (2.7), myocyte cross-sectional area and all the measures of obesity were significantly positively correlated with age. Regression of coronary narrowing on measures of obesity indicated that a quadratic model fitted the data for BMI, waist circumference and intra-abdominal fat better than a linear one. After adjusting for age, the degree of coronary narrowing was related to tertiles of BMI, waist circumference, WHR and intra-abdominal fat, the severity of the narrowing being most marked in the second tertile of BMI (24.0-31.0), waist circumference (80-96 cm) and intra-abdominal fat (500-1700 g), but in the third tertile of WHR (over 0.92). Regression on heart weight/height (2.7) on the aforementioned measures of obesity indicated a clearly linear association and heart weight indexed to height (2.7) was related to tertiles of BMI, waist circumference and WHR, and also to tertiles of intra-abdominal fat. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that body fatness and abdominal accumulation of fat are associated with the severity of coronary atherosclerosis and myocardial hypertrophy in women with no clinical evidence of cardiovascular disease, but the relationship between coronary lesions and BMI is not linear. Both coronary lesions and myocardial hypertrophy are more advanced as the numerical value for WHR increases in women. Future autopsy studies should be directed at young women with increased WHR in order to determine their risk of developing life-threatening lesions in the atherosclerosis-prone regions of the coronary tree.