ABSTRACT
The 1994 American Heart Association classifi cation incompletely described the variety of human atherosclerotic coronary lesions that lead to coronary thrombosis. In the modifi ed classifi cation, descriptive terminology was used to classify lesion diversity: adaptive intimal thickening, intimal xanthoma, pathologic intimal thickening, fi broatheroma, and thin-cap fi broatheroma as a precursor lesion to plaque rupture. Two other lesions that lead to thrombosis were also included and designated as plaque erosion and calcifi ed nodule. This classifi cation identifi ed other forms of plaque events observed in sudden coronary death cases that represent asymptomatic events. These included healed plaque rupture lesions which were shown to cause luminal narrowing and are likely precursors of plaque progression and possible initiators of stable angina.
