Pathophysiology
At first there may not be any obvious link between coronary arteries and
ear lobes however a few papers shed some light on this issue. Autopsy
studies involving biopsies of ear lobes in patients with DELC found
thickening of arterial walls and tears in the
elastin(21) and that both earlobe and myocardium are
supplied by end arteries without collateral
circulation(22). More recently
Stoyanov(23) found that patients with DELC had diffuse
fibrosis of an arterial vessel located at the base of the ear lobe
crease and that this was associated with corresponding changes to
myocardial tissue. As with our study, Stoyanov et al also found
that this correlation was independent of age. As has been suggested in
an earlier study(21), a reduced blood supply to the
ear lobe could cause destruction of the elastin which manifests as
creases in the ear lobe. It is feasible therefore that the same
atherosclerotic processes that causes narrowing of coronary arteries may
be causing a similar effect in the blood vessels supplying the ear lobe.