Heart disease-can anyone tell me what this means in english?

my mom passed away about 8months ago and on the autopsy report it said the cause of death was hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and to this day i haven't figured out what the hell that means so can anyone on here tell me what it means in english. was it like a heart attack or a stroke or what????

also if you could tell me what these mean in english as well it would be greatly appreciated although my first question is my main priority.
1. adrenal mass consistent with adrenal cortical neoplasm

2. leiomyomata or uterus, multiple, subserosal and intramuscular (ranging from 0.5 to 1.2 cm)

3. nodule of thyroid gland

please i only want to hear from people who know what they're talking about and thank so much in advance!

athero=fat deposition in an artery.
sclerosis= thickening and hardening.
atherosclerotic CVD means the lumen of the arteries which supply blood to heart got narrowed as a result of fatty deposits on their inner lining.very little amount of blood can pass now.hypertension is one of major cause.
(sorry to hear abt ur mom)

1)ad.cortical neoplasm....these r tumors in the kidney and most of them are functionally active and produce hormones.
2)leiomyomata.....also called fibroids,u can say an overgrowth in the uterus tissue but its not like normal uterus tissue,so the size n no. can be detected.
when subserosal...it means they r located on the outside surface of the uterus.
intramuscular..within the (muscular) wall of the uterus(much deeper).
3)nodule of thyroid...abnormal growth in the thyroid gland.most of them are benign(no to worry abt.) but some them can be cancerous.

Basically, the cause of death was that your mothers b/p was high, and her arteries were stiff...It happens with age, but it's also a risk factor for a heart attack, however if she had actually had a heart attack they probably would have put that on the d.c. My guess is what they're getting at was that even though your mothers heart may have been o.k. mechanically, everything else was too damaged (vessels, arteries,) to have a good bloodflow.

1. I believe that is a growth on the adrenal glad
2. I have no idea
3. a nodule is a growth of some kind.

Ok. I'm going to try to answer this the best I can. Hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease can be broken down into two parts (hypertension and atherosclerosis). Hypertension is basically defined as high blood pressure (above 140/90). Atherosclerosis is the hardening of coronary arteries because of fatty deposits. As far as the actual cause of death, I am uncertain. It could be a few things such as a stroke, congestive heart failure, and/or heart attack.
2. Leiomyomas are benign abnormal growth of smooth muscle origin. They are recognized as irregulr projections on the uterine surface that may displace or impinge on other sturctures in the same region and cause bladder problems. (Porth's Essentials of Pathophysiology).
3. Any abnormal growth that forms a lump on the thyroid gland. (www.medicinenet.com)

other answers have explained what hypertention and atherosclerotic disease is.....but the death certificate does not explain why she died...if she had a heart attack the dc would have said that....if she had a stroke it would have said that....her high BP and plaque build up in her arteries certainly put her at risk for either of these problems, and many more too!...I would ask her doctor to help you understand what happened to your mother...it's frustrating and hard to move on when you don't understand the "why"...unfortunately we can't always get the exact answers we seek, sometimes no one knows exactly what happened inside the body that lead to her death....