Background
Acute myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack, usually occurs when a plaque in a coronary artery ruptures or erodes and triggers a blood clot that blocks blood flow. However, not all dangerous plaque changes happen in the artery that causes the heart attack. In some patients, plaques in other coronary arteries that are not responsible for the infarction, called non-infarct-related arteries or non-IRAs, may also rupture. These ruptures may be silent, meaning they do not immediately cause symptoms or ischemia because they do not create a major blockage.
This study asked an important question: how often do silent plaque ruptures occur in non-obstructive lesions of non-IRAs in patients with acute myocardial infarction, what do these lesions look like at baseline, and how do they change over time if left untreated?
