Relation between Coronary Lesions and Cigarette Smoking of Subjects Deceased from Acute Myocardial Infarction. A Histopathological Study

Post-mortem studies on the relationship between coronary artery lesions and cigarette smoking in smoker subjects who died from AMI are numerically of scarce consistency if compared to the epidemiological and clinical findings. However, autopsy examination provides certain results on the definition of the existing link. This study, which analyzed 80 autopsy cases of smokers (n° 68) and non-smokers (n° 12) as a control group who died from AMI, showed that coronary arteries of smokers displayed more severe narrowing partially or totally occluding vessel lumen because of a superimposed thrombus and a higher incidence of three vessel coronary disease with a statistically significant difference. Calcium deposits in the coronary wall were also seen. However, the type and morphology of the alterations in both groups were similar to that observed in the lesions that usually can be documented in the histologic specimens of patients who died from AMI, any cause determined.