A 69-year-old woman presents with crushing substernal chest pain and nausea . She is treated with plasminogen activator, oxygen, and morphine sulfate. The patient subsequently becomes hypotensive and suffers cardiac arrest. A cross-section of the patient’s anterior interventricular artery is examined at autopsy (shown in the image). Which of the following best describes the pathologic changes visible in this specimen? The answer is Atherosclerosis . Atherosclerosis is the most common acquired abnormality of large- and medium-sized arteries. Major complications of atherosclerosis, including intermittent claudication, abdominal aortic aneurysm, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, and peripheral vascular disease, account for more than half of the annual deaths in the United States. Chest pain is the major complaint of patients with coronary artery disease (also referred to as ischemic heart disease). The pain typically occurs in the substernal portion o