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Document Details : Title: Anatomical and functional characteristics of ectatic coronary arteries Subtitle: An intracoronary ultrasound study Author(s): TRIANTAFYLLIDI, Helen , VAVOURANAKIS, Manolis , ARVANITI, Chrisa , STEFANADIS, Christodoulos , TOUTOUZAS, Pavlos Journal: Acta Cardiologica Volume: 59 Issue: 2 Date: April 2004 Pages: 153-158 DOI: 10.2143/AC.59.2.2005170 Abstract : Objective — Using intracoronary ultrasound we studied the anatomical characteristics and the pulsatile changes of the coronary arterial wall of ectatic coronary arteries in patients with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease who underwent percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Methods and results — Three study groups were formed according to the characteristics of the coronary segments, (a) group CES, coronary segments with ectasia, n = 10, (b) group NES, normal coronary segments adjacent to ectatic sites, n = 10 and (c) group NAS, normal coronary segments adjacent to atherosclerotic sites, n = 30. Pulsatile changes was defined as CSLAsyst-CSLAdia/CSLAdia ≈ 100. Coronary segments with ectasia (CES group) had significantly thinner media than the NAS group. Furthermore, increased vessel wall pulsatile changes were found in the ectatic segments. Conclusions — Atherosclerotic ectatic coronary segments reveal diminished media thickness and increased coronary arterial wall pulsatile changes, which may be indicative of a mechanically and structurally weak artery prone to aneurysm formation. |
