Cardiac Path 4 (CAD/MIs) COPY Flashcards
What disease is the following in reference to?
- Atherosclerosis of the coronaries which presents as myocardial ischemia owing to a slowly progressive narrowing by atherosclerosis or a sudden occlusion due to a thrombus.
- Chronic ischemia leads to CHF
Coronary Artery Disease
What disease is the following in reference to?
-Chronic progressive ischemia results in hypoperfusion of the myocardium and slowly evolving CHF
CAD
- Acute coronary thrombosis is more common in arteries already narrowed by __________
Atherosclerosis
What does sudden occlusion of a major coronary artery cause and does the location of the arterial occlusion differ?
Results in an Myocardial Infarct in an anatomically defined area
An anterior wall infarct is typically caused by occlusion of the ____________ coronary artery
Left anterior descending
An infarct of the lateral wall of the left ventricle is usually caused by occlusion of the ________ coronary artery.
left circumflex
An infarct of the right ventricle and posterior wall of the left ventricle is usually caused by occlusion of the ________ coronary artery.
Right Coronary Artery
Occlusion of the _______ accounts for over 50%
LAD
Occlusion of the _______ accounts for 30-40%
RCA
Occlusion of the ____________ accounts for the remaining 10-20% of all cases.
Left Circumflex Artery
Distribution of Myocardial Infarcts (picture)

Occlusion of _______coronary artery is most common
LAD (over 50%)
Pathology of which disease?
- The coronaries involved by atherosclerosis are transformed into rigid, heavily calcified cylinders
- On cross-section- lumina are narrowed from the prominent fibrotic plaques and atheromas. The wall contains deposits of calcium salts and cholesterol clefts.
Coronary Artery Disease

What is an acute Myocardial infarction?
Rapid, sudden occlusion of a coronary artery
80-90% of transmural myocardial infarcts are caused by ____________.
thrombosis of a coronary artery
Other causes of ________=
ulceration of an embolized atherosclerotic plaque or prolonged vasospasm.
Causes of Acute MI
Myocardial infarction:
What is the cause of Sudden Cardiac Death?
Most cases is from a major cardiac arrhythmia (i.e. V-fib) or later complete heart block and pump failure
Myocardial infarction:
Sudden cardiac death occurs in approx. ___% of cases,
25%
–> the other 75% survivie
What is this picture showing?

Opened LAD with Thrombosis and Acute Myocardial Infarct
The following happens to who?
- most develop signs of heart failure and cardiogenic shock.
- multisystemic major organ failure develops (from lack of perfusion)
- Cerebral ischemia (most dangerous)–> can lead to permanent mental injury/ loss of CNS function
What happens to the 75% of people who survive the onset of an MI
Grossly, what are the 2 types of MI’s?
Morphologically, there are 2 types:
1. Transmural
- Subendocardial or intramural
Which type of myocardial infarction involves all three layers of the heart, and usually involves the free wall of the left ventricle and/or the interventricular septum.
***This is more dangerous and can result in LV rupture
Transmural myocardial infarction

Which type of myocardial infarction is usually concentric around the subendocardial layer of the left ventricle.
Subendocardial or Intramural Myocardial infarct
