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myocardial infarction(MI) death of the cells of an area of the myocardium (heart muscle), because of oxygen deprivation, which in turn is caused by obstruction of the blood supply. The myocardium receives its blood supply from the two large coronary arteries and their branches; blockage of one or more of these blood vessels (coronary occlusion) is a major cause of myocardial infarction and often is caused by a clot that has suddenly developed when an atheromatous plaque has ruptured through the sublayers of a blood vessel, or when the narrow, roughened inner lining of a sclerosed artery leads to complete thrombosis. Popularly called heart attack.
Myocardial infarction shown in cross-section of heart (ventricles only).
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