Fig. 1

Pathophysiology of lesion instability in diabetes mellitus. Shown is the development of coronary artery disease in diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus (blue) bestows endothelial dysfunction (green), plaque alteration (yellow) and platelet/coagulation disturbances (purple). The interplay between these factors leads to the development of fibroatheroma that is prone to rupture. In a pro-thrombotic environment this evolves into a substrate for thrombus formation and initiates an adverse cardiac event (red)