Coronary Artery Atherosclerosis
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These light micrographs show sections of a human coronary artery stained with three different stains. The left sample is a Hematoxylin and Eosin stain, the middle image is a Masson Trichrome stain for fibrous tissue (blue) and the rightmost image is stained with a Movat pentachrome method. The adventitia layer (outmost layer) shows adipose tissue and loose fibrous tissue all around the vessel. Image on the right shows an upper rectangular highlight of the adventitia. Below, there is another rectangle which point to the media, which for the most part has been destroyed by the atheromatous plaque. The blue hue in left image (green square) shows calcification of the connective tissue. The middle image shows a complex atheromatous plaque. The rectangular highlights show the cholesterol clefts (which are empty unstained “needle-like” spaces in the H&E the trichrome and the Movat stains, and represent clefts left over by dissolution of cholesterol during the processing of the tissue for the production of the microscopic glass slides). The Movat stained image (right) shows the marked reduction of the lumen surface area and the fibrous cap that surrounds the lumen (dotted lines) as well as red-blood cell rich thrombus occluding the lumen.
