Microscopic and histological analysis of the processes occurring in the aperture and wall of a coronary vessel after stent implantation

The serious problem of angioplasty is restenosis, which relates to approx. 15–30% of all the patients subjected to the procedure. The present research was inspired by an attempt to explain this phenomenon and to analyse its causes. Two coronary arteries coming from the patients after stent implantation were subjected to analysis using light and electron microscopy. As a result of expansion of the stent and pressing the implant metallic structure into the artery wall, it comes to breaking the endothelium continuity, uncovering the structures of the intercellular matrix and the internal membrane and, consequently, to creation of a thrombus in the damaged area. As a result of the tissue response, the extracellular matrix is created and neointime formed.