Heart Attack Pathology: Photo Essay (cont.)

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Can a person have more than one Heart Attack?

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Yes. Not uncommonly, people with coronary artery disease have more than one heart attack over the years. In fact, by looking at the heart tissue at autopsy, pathologists can tell when myocardial infarctions occurred. Thus, very recent (acute, hours old) infarctions may appear as a pale brown region, infarctions days old (subacute) appear yellow, and healed (weeks to years old) infarctions appear as white scars in the heart muscle. Figure 5 shows three myocardial infarctions of different ages in the muscle of a left ventricle.

Figure 5: Three Myocardial Infarctions of Different Ages
Slice Across Heart Ventricles

PIcture of Different Stages of Myocardial Infarctions


Last Editorial Review: 3/5/2007


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