INTRODUCTION Limited information is available regarding the relationship between coronary vessel dominance and atherosclerotic involvement. Rheological factors have been implicated in the pathogenesis of coronary lesions. More than 90% of the coronary blood flow enters the left coronary if it is the dominant artery. The main purpose of this study was to determine the relation between left coron...

A myocardial bridge (MB), partially covering the coronary artery, is a congenital anatomical variant usually present in the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). MB causes coronary heart disease (CHD) by 2 distinct mechanisms influenced by the anatomical properties of the MB, such as its length, thickness, and location. One is direct MB compression of the LAD at cardiac systole, resul...

Potent cardioinhibitory vagal reflex resulting in bradycardia and hypotension has been observed under particular conditions of transmural inferior ischemia and its reperfusion, such as those observed with acute infarction. However, whether exercise-induced ischemia with ST depressions that is subendocardial and that might be recurrently experienced in daily activities can evoke this reflex rema...

BACKGROUND Given its proven survival benefit, left internal thoracic artery to left anterior descending (LITA-LAD) grafting has become a fundamental part of CABG. This grafting also led to increased use of other arterial conduits, of which the radial artery is most popular. Whether radial grafting improves survival beyond that achieved by LITA-LAD alone is not known. METHODS AND RESULTS We co...

Increasing evidence supports a role for oxidative DNA damage in aging and several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Attack of DNA by reactive oxygen species (ROS), particularly hydroxyl radicals, can lead to strand breaks, DNA-DNA and DNA-protein cross-linking, and formation of at least 20 modified bases adducts. In addition, alpha,beta-unsaturated aldehydic by-prod...

Wellens' syndrome, also known as the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary T wave syndrome, is a potentially under-recognized syndrome in emergency room, which can have potentially fatal consequences. It usually consists of typical electrocardiography (ECG) finding in precordial leads that represents significant stenosis of the proximal LAD. Although the syndrome is not included in indication...

The aim of this study was to compare the ability of electro- and echocardiography to detect enlargement of the left atrium. Seventy-four patients, divided into three groups (eighteen normal, thirty-six valvular disease, twenty hypertension and/or coronary artery disease) were studied. The P wave terminal force in lead V1 (PTF-V1) was measured from a standard 12 lead electrocardiogram, and the i...

PURPOSE Our aim was to determine whether there is a correlation between cross-sectional areas of the left main coronary artery (LMCA), left anterior descending artery (LAD), and circumflex artery (CX) in normal cases using coronary CT angiography. METHOD Examinations of 180 patients (119 men and 61 women) were selected among 2248 consecutive coronary CT angiography studies. Cross-sectional ar...

BACKGROUND Ventricle-to-coronary artery bypass (VCAB) is an experimental revascularization procedure that provides predominantly systolic instead of diastolic blood flow to a coronary artery. METHODS AND RESULTS In a pig model, a stent-based procedure (VSTENT) was developed to create a VCAB. After thoracotomy, a covered VSTENT was implanted between the left ventricle and the left anterior des...

BACKGROUND Thermodilution coronary flow reserve (CFRthermo) is a new technique for invasively measuring coronary flow reserve (CFR) with a coronary pressure wire and is based on the ability of the pressure transducer to also measure temperature changes. Whether CFRthermo correlates well enough with absolute flow-derived CFR (CFRflow) to replace Doppler wire-derived CFR (CFRDoppler) remains uncl...