Abundance of plaque microvessels is associated with constrictive remodeling in angioplastied human coronary arteries

This study investigated if specific histological features correlate with re modeling in human coronary arteries treated by balloon angioplasty (PTCA). Segments of perfusion-fixed coronary arteries that had undergone antemortem PTCA were obtained from 15 patients and primary atherosclerotic (CAD) lesi ons obtained from these hearts were used as control lesions. Arterial segme nts were serially divided to yield 108 sub-segments for PTCA lesions and 38 sub-segments for CAD lesions. A linear regression analysis was used to det ermine the relationship between II histological parameters and an arbitrary index of compensatory arterial enlargement, the external elastic lamina (E EL) index (EELI), defined as the ratio of the area encompassed by the EEL t o the sum of the intimal area (IA) + medial area (MA). In PTCA arteries the abundance of plaque microvessels negatively correlated with the EELI (p=0. 04), but in CAD arteries there was no relationship between histology and th e EELI. The abundance of plaque microvessels correlates with the magnitude of constriction in coronary artery lesions subjected to PTCA. This study pr ovides descriptive insights into the biology of remodeling in human coronar y arteries after angioplasty, and suggests that the endothelium may play an important role.