Factors in the Production of Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract

The recent tendency to accept the syndromes of coronary artery disease as an indication of the presence or relative absence of coronary atherosclerosis in the living patient is open to serious objection. The production of these syndromes would appear to depend, not so much on the degree of coronary atherosclerosis, as on the presence of extraneous factors which precipitate occlusion. Of these factors, hemorrhage into atherosclerotic plaques is of major importance. The etiology of this lesion, and the manner in which it precipitates occlusion, are reviewed.