title: Pathologic findings of coronary stents: a comparison of sudden coronary death versus non-cardiac death.
abstract: There are few histologic studies of intracoronary stents found at autopsy. We studied histologic findings of 87 intracoronary stents from 45 autopsy hearts. There were 40 patients with chronically implanted stents and five shorter than 30 days. Of five patients with recent stent placement, the cause of death was related to the stent (in-stent thrombosis) in one case. Of the 40 patients with chronic stents, there were 16 sudden coronary deaths and 24 noncoronary deaths (controls). There were no late stent thromboses in the coronary deaths. In the coronary deaths, 26% of stents showed restenosis versus 11% in controls (p = 0.1). The rate of healed infarcts and cardiomegaly was similar in the coronary and noncoronary groups, and acute thrombi in native arteries were seen only in three hearts in the coronary group. We conclude that the cause of death is rarely impacted by in-stent findings at autopsy, especially in chronically implanted stents.
authors.affiliation: Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Office, 5670 Spring Garder Road, Suite 701, Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 1H7.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mont
authors.forename: Nathaniel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cresswell
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Burke
mesh_terms: D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D054059:Coronary Occlusion / Q000473:pathology; D023903:Coronary Restenosis / Q000473:pathology; D003328:Coronary Thrombosis / Q000473:pathology; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005337:Fibrin / Q000378:metabolism; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D015726:Giant Cells / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000473:pathology; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D058426:Neointima / Q000473:pathology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015607:Stents
chemical_list: D005337:Fibrin
keywords: coronary death; forensic science; noncoronary death; stent implantation