Histologic sections from patients with AMI and those with stable lesions. (a) through (c), Histologic sections from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients: a 64-year-old woman who died from congestive heart failure 9 months after paclitaxel-eluting stent (PES) implantation (a), a 49-year-old man who died from noncardiac cause 13 months after sirolimus-eluting stent (SES) implantation (b), and a 34-year-old woman who died from late stent thrombosis 24 months after SES implantation (c). Struts with necrotic core (NC) were observed with fibrin deposition and absence of endothelial coverage (a). Stents in (b and c) showed minimal coverage of struts above necrotic core at 13 or 24 months’ duration. (d) through (f), Histologic sections from patients with stable lesions: a 61-year-old man who died from a noncardiac cause 7 months after SES implantation (d), a 53-year-old man who died suddenly 18 months after PES implantation (e), and a 68-year-old man who died from a noncardiac cause 19 months after SES implantation (f). All patients had underlying fibroatheroma with thick fibrous cap. High magnification images show underlying necrotic core (NC) and thick fibrous-cap (FC) with varying degree of neointimal formation above stent struts ((d) through (f)). (Reproduced with permission from [23.)