Coronary anatomy and microarchitecture as related to coronary atherosclerotic involvement.

A report is given on the authors' main results concerning the anatomy and microarchitecture of human coronary arteries as related to atherosclerotic involvement and to the clinical manifestations of coronary heart disease. The peculiarities of anatomical branching pattern, of the intimal thickening, muscle columns development, of age-related changes, in the intima/media thickness ratio, as well as the segmental characteristics in susceptibility to plaque development and in the plaque pattern are presented. Our results allow to delineate the coronary arterial bed as an entity in anatomical, histological and pathological sense.