Particular aspects of the children coronary artery remodelling

Coronary media shows a very reduced capacity to add after birth new rows of smooth muscle cells to the preexisting ones, in contrast to the media of other organ arteries. This medial deficiency is compensated by a rapid and diffuse intimal thickening which acts as an atherogenic factor. In addition the prevalence of longitudinally arranged smooth muscle cells in many segments of the coronary bed suggests that these segments react in a different manner to nervous stimuli, catecholamines and drugs.