Clinical History:
- A 59-year-old obese man with a history of smoking 2 packs of cigarettes per day developed sudden onset of substernal chest pain. He became diaphoretic and short of breath. Paramedics were called, but upon arrival he was in cardiac arrest and could not be revived. The sections of coronary artery seen here were taken at autopsy.
- What do you see in the lumen of the coronaries?
A thrombus is present in the lumen of the artery.
- How does this pathologic appearance correlate with the clinical history?
The thrombosis led to the sudden chest pain and the
subsequent death (probably from a cardiac arrhythmia). A thrombus is found is such deaths about 40% of the time. Sudden death is one consequence of coronary artery disease.
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