Congenital communication between left coronary artery to left ventricle is a rare anomaly. A 52-year-old male patient visited our institution complaining of paroxysmal palpitation and echocardiography revealed a large fistula draining into the left ventricle. Coronary angiography and computed tomography (CT) scanning confirmed the fistula located between the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX...

A 49-year-old woman presented with 3 weeks of exertional chest pain. A trans-esophageal echocardiogram with color Doppler was suggestive of a large coronary artery fistula 3.1 2.4 cm in size, originating from the left main coronary artery and emptying into the superior vena cava–right atrial junction. Coronary angiography demonstrated a dilated left main coronary artery with a giant fistulous c...

BACKGROUND We tested the hypothesis that ischemia-induced ventricular fibrillation (VF) is facilitated by platelets, trapped regionally in the ischemic zone and activated to release arrhythmogenic secretome. METHODS AND RESULTS In a randomized study in blood-free, buffer-perfused isolated rat hearts, ischemic zone territory (34±1% of left ventricle) was selected so that ischemia evoked VF in ...

Myocardial infarction in humans provokes an acute phase response, and C-reactive protein (CRP), the classical acute phase plasma protein, is deposited together with complement within the infarct. The peak plasma CRP value is strongly associated with postinfarct morbidity and mortality. Human CRP binds to damaged cells and activates complement, but rat CRP does not activate complement. Here we s...

To evaluate the prognostic significance of clinicopathological measurement in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (MI) in sheep, acute MI was induced by ligation of left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). For this purpose, twenty four healthy sheep were divided into the sham-operated or control group (group I, thoracotomy without MI) and the experimental group (group II, with M...

Chronic skeletal muscle ischemia confers cytoprotection to the ventricular myocardium during infarction, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Although neovascularization in the left ventricular myocardium has been proposed as a possible mechanism, the functional capacity of such vessels has not been studied. We examined the effects of chronic limb ischemia on infarct size, coronary blo...

A coronary artery fistula was surgically ligated in a 38-year-old woman via a left anterior mini-thoracotomy without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass. In selected cases, this surgical approach can provide an excellent surgical exposure for coronary artery fistula ligation. It also offers an excellent cosmetic result and shorter hospital stay.