Overview of coronary artery variants, aberrations and anomalies.

Overview of coronary artery variants, aberrations and anomalies. World J Cardiol. 2018 Oct 26;10(10):127-140 Authors: Kastellanos S, Aznaouridis K, Vlachopoulos C, Tsiamis E, Oikonomou E, Tousoulis D Abstract Coronary artery anomalies and variants are relatively uncommon congenital disorders of the coronary artery anatomy and constitute the second most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young competitive athletes. The rapid advancement of imaging techniques, including computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, intravascular ultrasound and optical coherence tomography, have provided us with a wealth of new information on the subject. Anomalous origin of a coronary artery from the contralateral sinus is the anomaly most frequently associated with sudden cardiac death, in particular if the anomalous coronary artery has a course between the aorta and the pulmonary artery. However, other coronary anomalies, like anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery, atresia of the left main stem and coronary fistulae, have also been implicated in cases of sudden cardiac death. Patients are usually asymptomatic, and in most of the cases, coronary anomalies are discovered incidentally during coronary angiography or on autopsy following sudden cardiac death. However, in some cases, symptoms like angina, syncope, heart failure and myocardial infarction may occur. The aims of this article are to present a brief over...
Source: World Journal of Cardiology - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: World J Cardiol Source Type: research