Inflammation and the Onset of Myocardial Infarction

Excerpt

How and why is an acute myocardial infarction precipitated in a patient who may not have had significant deterioration of structural and functional coronary abnormalities just before the infarction, and perhaps not for a long time before (1)? Numerous immediate mechanisms come to mind: the final addition to a relentless thrombotic silting over of an atheroma; sudden thrombosis owing to systemic, local arterial, or hemic changes; hemorrhage into, or rupture of, atherosclerotic plaque; and vasospasm with or without thrombosis. Regardless of the immediate "last straw," the question remains, What led to the infarction?

A recent investigation of pericarditis of many