Myocardial Infarction Exacerbates Atherosclerosis via Enhanced Monocyte Production

摘要

Clear evidence of improved cardiovascular care is the fact that nearly 90% of patients survive a first myocardial infarction (MI). However, reinfarction is common in these patients and is coupled with high mortality. It is intuitively appealing to believe that reinfarction is a downstream event on a linear trajectory of cardiovascular disease progression that begins with the first event. An alternative hypothesis has been proposed in which post-MI inflammation associated with the body's attempts to repair the damaged heart, actually exacerbates pre-existing atherosclerosis thereby increasing risk of secondary events. It has been established that monocytes and macrophages promote inflammation at the site of atherosclerotic lesions, causing them to be unstable.