Figure 1.

Causes and consequences of myocardial infarction in mammals. (A) Schematic representation of a human heart in which one of the coronary arteries is occluded by an atheromatous plaque (magnified area). When blood flow is interrupted, a region of the myocardium becomes ischemic (brown shade). Ischemic myocardium eventually dies and is replaced by fibrotic tissue. (B) Anatomical and histological differences between a healthy and an infarcted heart. In contrast to a healthy heart, the infarcted ventricle shows a thinning of the affected wall, in which the cardiac muscle has been replaced by fibrotic tissue. LV, left ventricle; RV, right ventricle