Immune Response to PCI (Angioplasty)

Angioplasty, with or without stents, releases the contents of the atherosclerotic plaque into the blood and exposes various degraded substances to the immune system which may never have seen them before. The result is a sustained rise in antibodies to the plaque contents lasting months. In theory these antibodies could enter previously stable plaques and set off an immune response which could cause plaque rupture. This scenario could explain why angioplasties seen to generate more infarctions than surgery or medical treatment as seen in the MASS-II study.