Intracoronary ultrasound measurements in women with myocardial infarction without significant coronary lesions

Methods Morphologic characteristics of coronary arteries in eight women with myocardial infarction and angiographically normal or not significantly stenosed vessels were investigated with intracoronary ultrasound. The infarct-related vessel was assessed by three-dimensional volumetric analysis and compared with a control vessel from a noninfarcted area, Results Atherosclerosis was found in all infarct-related arteries, The plaques were predominantly soft, eccentric, poorly calcified, and with little lipid pools or none at all, Although the average area and thickness of plaques and cross-sectional narrowing of the infarct-related arteries were greater than those of control arteries, there were no patognomonic characteristics of plaques in the infarct-related vessels. Conclusion The possibility that atherosclerosis is the main etiologic factor for myocardial infarction can not be excluded even for women without an angiographically obvious coronary stenosis in the infarct-related vessels. Coron Artery Dis 11:579-584 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.