Evaluation of the atherosclerotic plaque of coronary arteries: A 10-year epidemiological surveillance study

Coronary arteries are the main vessels supplying the heart. Various factors can affect their performance, which causes coronary diseases and impaired blood supply and irreparable complications. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases with the highest mortality rate and disability among patients. The objective of this study is to investigate the epidemiological and anatomical characteristics of the atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries and their risk factors in Mazandaran Heart Center. This cross-sectional study with a census design performed on all patients with atherosclerotic plaque, who undergone atherectomy surgery, from November 2009 to January 2019. Patient’s information was extracted from their medical records archive with ethical points. SPSS 16.0 was used for statistical analysis. Out of 156 patients with atherosclerotic plaque, 60.9% were male. The mean age of patients was 61.58± 8.9 years. The most incidence of atherosclerotic plaques was seen in 50-80 age category. Atherosclerotic plaques were mostly found in the right coronary (RCA) (53.8%) followed by left anterior descending (LAD) (41%) arteries, which was more common in men. No significant relationship was observed between sex, age, the number of arteries involved and level of biochemical variables.   We found that gender, age, calcification, FBS, TG, TC, HDL, and LDL do not have significant effect on “site” of plaque in different coronary arteries which might due to same physiological and histological structure of these arteries. Further studies are being needed for etiology and mechanism involved.