Experimental and human necropsy observations indicate that a thrombus can and frequently does lead to the intensification and aggrandizement of the human atherosclerotic process.
Conversion of a thrombus into atherosclerotic plaque in diseased human arteries was observed in serial sections of six arterial segments, Meyer Friedman, MD, told a symposium on atherosclerotic vascular disease sponsored by the Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, Philadelphia.
Dr. Friedman is director of the Harold Brunn Institute, Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center, San Francisco.
Subject of Dispute
The role of the thrombus in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis is, like many other aspects of this disease, a subject of dispute. Broadly speaking, one group, composed primarily of American investigators, considers a thrombotic lesion a late complication of the disease whose origin most likely is due in large part to a chronic lipid disorder. A second school, composed primarily of British investigators, holds that a thrombus,