Correlation of atherectomy specimen histology with coronary arteriographic lesion morphologic appearance in patients with stable and unstable angina

Abstract Complex lesions on coronary arteriography are seen commonly in patients with unstable angina and have been considered to be evidence of ruptured plaque with or without thrombus. To investigate the cause of complex lesions the histologic findings in atherectomy-derived specimens in 111 patients were correlated with lesion morphologic appearance on coronary arteriography. Among 91 patients with complex lesions, 81.3% had thrombus and 57.1% had evidence of plaque rupture. Of 20 patients with smooth lesions, 15% had thrombus and 10% had plaque rupture on histologic evaluation ( p p