Materials that can embolize to a coronary artery:
(1) air (during surgery or infusion, in a diver, in a pressurized environment)
(2) other gas (highly pressurized source, other)
(3) operative material (suture, Teflon felt, etc)
(4) cholesterol crystals or atherosclerotic plaque (may be dislodged from more proximal coronary artery during PCI, from ascending aorta, etc)
(5) nutritional support particles infused into the wrong intravascular catheter
(6) malignant tumor
(7) thrombus within the left atrium or left ventricle
(8) vegetation on mitral or aortic valve (endocarditis, prosthetic valve, etc)
(9) bone marrow (after bone fracture)
(10) other injected intravenous material with paradoxical passage (through patent foramen ovale or through the pulmonary circulation; intravenous drug abuse, other)
Microscopic examination of a coronary embolus can be important in establishing the cause.
