INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Coronary ectasia is characterized by the presence of diffuse dilation of the coronary vessels and is detected in 0.3-5.3% of angiographic studies. Our objective was to evaluate the prevalence of this condition, to analyze its clinical and angiographic characteristics, and to compare patients with ectasia and patients without it. PATIENTS AND METHOD Coronary angiogr...

Background Coronary endothelial vasodilator dysfunction is a common finding in cardiac transplant recipients and may represent an early marker for the development of intimal thickening and graft atherosclerosis. The present study tested the hypothesis that endothelial dysfunction precedes intimal thickening and that administration of L-arginine, the precursor of endothelium-derived relaxing fac...

BACKGROUND Coronary endothelial vasodilator dysfunction is a common finding in cardiac transplant recipients and may represent an early marker for the development of intimal thickening and graft atherosclerosis. The present study tested the hypothesis that endothelial dysfunction precedes intimal thickening and that administration of L-arginine, the precursor of endothelium-derived relaxing fac...

background and objectives: in spite of large number of studies conducted so far, sudden cardiac death remains an enigma and relative importance of acute coronary events as a trigger of sudden death is currently unclear. an autopsy study of heart was therefore planned to observe various histomorphological cardiac changes, and to determine the frequency association of acute coronary events and my...

Large intercoronary communications in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease constitute a very rare coronary artery anomaly in which there is a readily visible connection between the 2 coronary arteries with a unidirectional or bidirectional blood flow; consequently, this anomaly may be misinterpreted as a functioning collateral vessel, indicative of an unrecognized proximal coronar...

OBJECTIVES This study examined myocardial microvascular emboli and obstruction, and related these to plaque in the epicardial coronary arteries supplying the affected microvessels. BACKGROUND Epicardial coronary thrombosis often causes microemboli and microvascular obstruction. The consequences of myocardial microvessel obstruction and myocyte necrosis are substantial, yet histopathologic cha...

Most young colleagues may not be aware of the fact that coronary stenting started back in Europe during the late 1980s with the delivery of self-expanding nitinol devices (1). The coronary Wallstent (Boston Scientific, Natick, Massachusetts) was indeed the first stent used in the coronary circulation, be it in grafted saphenous veins or in native coronary vessels of sufficient diameter (2). It ...

A 55-year-old male runner was found to have severe three-vessel coronary disease on angiography soon after completing a 25-mile marathon with no symptoms. This patient raises important questions concerning our understanding of ischemic heart disease.

AIMS Prognostic importance of coronary vessel dominance in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains uncertain. The aim of this study was to assess influence of coronary vessel dominance on the short- and long-term outcome after STEMI. METHODS AND RESULTS Coronary angiographic images of consecutive patients presenting with first STEMI were retrospectively reviewed to as...

Several papers dealing with endomyocardial fibrosis have appeared in recent years, most from Africa (Bedford and Konstam, 1946; Edge, 1946; Gray, 1951; Davies and Ball, 1955), a few from America (Smith and Furth, 1943; Elster et al., 1955), and from Europe (Loffler, 1936; Miimme, 1940). It differs from fibrosis of the endocardium and myocardium accompanying occlusive disease of the coronary art...