Morphodynamic interpretation of acute coronary thrombosis, with special reference to volcano-like eruption of atheromatous plaque caused by coronary artery spasm.

Routine autopsy studies of hearts with coronary thrombosis, collected over a period of eleven years, showed unique morphologic features of rupture of soft atheromatous plaques. These features include: (1) irregular luminar outline: angulation, invagination, upheaval, and/or wrinkles, (2) wavy outline of atheromatous cavity, (3) volcano-like rupture with seepage or gushing of semiliquid atheromatous contents into lumen, (4) cholesterol crystals arranged in rheologic vector direction, (5) rupture of deeper intimal fibrous tissue, (6) one or multiple intimal upheavals, (7) focal thickening of contracted media, (8) vestige of volcano-like eruption with organized thrombus, and (9) old thrombotic occlusion with wavy appearance of thick intimal fibrous tissue. The authors present a dynamic model of vasoconstriction or artery spasm that accounts for these features and the rupture of soft atheromatous plaques.