Presence of vulnerable coronary plaques in middle-aged individuals who suffered a brain death.

Aims: Vulnerable plaques in coronary arteries are frequently found in individuals who died suddenly or due to an acute coronary syndrome. The prevalence and characteristics of these plaques in the middle-aged apparently healthy population are unknown.

Methods And Results: From a total of 652 hearts from transplant donors collected between 1996 and 2007, we selected those from apparently healthy individuals older than 40 years old who died of head trauma or stroke and had no evidence of prior vascular diseases.