 Coronary artery disease CAD accounted for more than 8 million deaths yearly worldwide. In particular, acute coronary syndrome ACS remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality and is responsible for more than 1 million hospital admissions in the United States annually. The pathophysiologic hallmark of ACS is coronary thrombosis caused by atherosclerotic plaque injury, with two types of injuries being described. The first is plaque rupture, which remains the most common cause of coronary athero-thrombosis, and the second is superficial plaque erosion which is recognized with increasing frequency. As opposed to plaque rupture, lesions that are caused by erosion do not have thin fibrous caps, abundant inflammatory cells, or a large lipid core, but rather rich in extracellular matrix, such as proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans. 