The Role of Interventional Cardiology to Our Understanding of Basic Mechanisms Related to Coronary Atherosclerosis: “Thinking outside the box”

Interventional cardiology has contributed significantly to our understanding of coronary atherosclerosis. Interventional cardiology has allowed a correlation between the clinical picture of coronary atherosclerosis with the underlying pathology and has helped establish the evolution of atherosclerotic plaques in vivo. Better understanding of the basic mechanisms of coronary atherosclerosis, due to the contributions of interventional cardiology, will help cure and/or prevent coronary atherosclerosis in the next few decades. In this mini review, several of the remarkable contributions of interventional cardiology, which have allowed a better understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms related to coronary atherosclerosis, will be emphasized. In addition, certain projections for the future will be made based on current knowledge.