Natural History of Atherosclerosis: A Critical Evaluation of the Current Understanding of the Natural History of Human Atherosclerosis

Natural History of Atherosclerosis: A Critical Evaluation of the Current Understanding of the Natural History of Human Atherosclerosis
At a 2004 meeting in Paris, Renu Virmani, MD, FACC, medical director and founder of CVPath Institute, Gaithersburg, Maryland, warned that drug-eluting stents (DESs) could increase the risk of late thrombosis leading to MIs months or even years after the stents were implanted. Despite pathology slides vividly showing the victims’ stents totally occluded by clots, few of her colleagues showed much interest in her warning. Yet subsequent analyses of clinical trial and registry data suggest that late thrombosis is seen more often with DES placement than with older bare-metal stents (BMSs). The data – summarized in an AHA ’06 report featuring Robert S. Schwartz, MD, FACC (click here) – have renewed interest in the natural history of human atherosclerosis and what can be done clinically to reduce the risk of late thrombosis.