Journal Article

Prevalence of anatomical variants and coronary anomalies in 543 consecutive patients studied with 64-slice CT coronary angiography

Aldrovandi, Annachiara, Pugliese, Francesca, Brambilla, Valerio, Coruzzi, Paolo, Maffei, Erica, Malagò, Roberto, La Grutta, Ludovico, Mollet, Nico R. A., Alberghina, Filippo, Palumbo, Anselmo Alessandro, Meijboom, Willem B., Midiri, Massimo, Cademartiri, Filippo, Fusaro, Michele, Krestin, Gabriel P.

2008

Overview

The aim of our study was to assess the prevalence of variants and anomalies of the coronary artery tree in patients who underwent 64-slice computed tomography coronary angiography (CT-CA) for suspected or known coronary artery disease. A total of 543 patients (389 male, mean age 60.5 ± 10.9) were reviewed for coronary artery variants and anomalies including post-processing tools. The majority of segments were identified according to the American Heart Association scheme. The coronary dominance pattern results were: right, 86.6%; left, 9.2%; balanced, 4.2%. The left main coronary artery had a mean length of 112 ± 55 mm. The intermediate branch was present in the 21.9%. A variable number of diagonals (one, 25%; two, 49.7%; more than two, 24%; none, 1.3%) and marginals (one, 35.2%; two, 46.2%; more than two, 18%; none, 0.6%) was visualized. Furthermore, CT-CA may visualize smaller branches such as the conus branch artery (98%), the sinus node artery (91.6%), and the septal branches (93%). Single or associated coronary anomalies occurred in 18.4% of the patients, with the following distribution: 43 anomalies of origin and course, 68 intrinsic anomalies (59 myocardial bridging, nine aneurisms), three fistulas. In conclusion, 64-slice CT-CA provides optimal visualization of the variable and complex anatomy of coronary arteries because of the improved isotropic spatial resolution and flexible post-processing tool.

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adult / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / Angina pectoris / Cardiac / Cardiology / Cardiovascular disease / Contrast Media / Coronary Angiography - methods / Coronary Circulation / Coronary Vessel Anomalies - diagnostic imaging / Coronary Vessel Anomalies - epidemiology / Coronary vessels / Diagnostic Radiology / Female / Heart / Humans / Imaging / Internal Medicine / Interventional Radiology / Iopamidol - analogs & derivatives / Male / Medical imaging / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Middle Aged / Neuroradiology / Patients / Prevalence / Radiographic Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Radiology / Tomography / Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Ultrasound / Vein & artery diseases