Natural progression of atherosclerosis from pathologic intimal thickening to late fibroatheroma in human coronary arteries: AÂ pathology study

PIT to fibroatheroma lesions are accompanied by early lipid accumulation, followed by macrophage infiltration with defective clearance of apoptotic bodies along with decrease in proteoglycan and hyaluronan in lipid pools that convert to necrotic cores. Calcification starts in PIT and increases with plaque progression.