Andrew Farb

TL;DR: This review will reconsider the current paradigm for understanding the critical, final steps in the progression of atherosclerotic lesions, and devise a simpler classification scheme that is consistent with the AHA categories but is easier to use, able to deal with a wide array of morphological variations, and not overly burdened by mechanistic implications.

TL;DR: The term "vulnerable patient" may be more appropriate and is proposed now for the identification of subjects with high likelihood of developing cardiac events in the near future and a quantitative method for cumulative risk assessment of vulnerable patients needs to be developed.

TL;DR: The Cypher and Taxus DES result in delayed arterial healing when compared with BMS of similar implant duration, and the cause of DES LST is multifactorial with delayed healing in combination with other clinical and procedural risk factors playing a role.

TL;DR: Of the three types of coronary thrombosis, a precursor lesion for acute rupture has been postulated and the non-thrombosed lesion that most resembles the acute plaque rupture is the thin cap fibroatheroma (TCFA).

TL;DR: Among men with coronary disease who die suddenly, abnormal serum cholesterol concentrations - particularly elevated ratios of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol - predispose patients to rupture of vulnerable plaques, whereas cigarette smoking predisposes patients to acute thrombosis.