Figure 1.

Quantitation of necrotic cores in hearts from patients dying sudden with severe coronary disease. (a) The numbers of necrotic cores increased with advancing age, reaching a maximum in the sixth decade. There was a significant increase between ≤30 years and both the 7th and 8 decades (P < .0001). (b) Adjusted for plaque burden (numbers of atheromatous plaques/total number studied), the number of fibroatheromas was similar across all ages, with the exception of under age 30, which demonstrated a significantly lower number. There was a significant increase between ≤30 years and the 5th decade (P = .04), the 6th decade (P = .02), and the 7th decades (P = .02).