Morphological characteristics of atherosclerotic lesions of the coronary artery wall
There were 31 fragments of the coronary arteries investigated in patients who died in Minsk hospitals and who generally had clinical manifestations of coronary disease and diabetes mellitus. Heterogenic morphological lesions were detected in the coronary arteries which are characteristic for different stages of the atherosclerotic process from the imperceptible intima-media thickening to big complicated atherosclerotic plaques. At the same time, the fraction of the vulnerable plaques was between 0 and 0.94 (the mean value was 0.44 ± 0.24). As usual, the history of diabetes mellitus was associated with a higher quantity of unstable atherosclerotic plaques in the coronary arteries.