Abstract
The objective of this study is to evaluate multidetector CT (MDCT) in detecting and characterizing anomalous coronary arteries. Forty-four patients with anomalies of the coronaries were selected from a total of 1758 individuals examined with ECG-gated 4- and 16-row MDCT including thinMIP, MPR and VRT post-processing. Twenty-eight patients showed origin and course anomalies of the central coronary segments, and in this subgroup 13 were judged as “malignant” because of interarterial courses between the aortic root and the pulmonary trunk, either of the right coronary artery (n=11) or the left coronary artery (n=2). Twelve non-hemodynamic anomalies were found, affecting the coronary origins only (n=10) or the peripheral vessels courses (n=2). Four arteriovenous fistulas were present, all of them with complex arterial feeders. Regardless of vessel anatomy, coronary opacification was always possible by means of the systemic contrast agent, and the aberrant coronary arteries were visualized synoptically in direct relation to the great mediastinal vessels. In contrast to MDCT, selective cannulation and final diagnosis was possible in only 11 of the 20 catheter angiograms performed (accuracy of 55.0%). In conclusion, its non-invasiveness and precise visualization makes MDCT the standard of reference for evaluating anomalous coronary arteries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Smith GT (1962) The anatomy of the coronary circulation. Am J Cardiol 9:327–342
Waller BF, Orr CM, Slack JD, Pinkerton CA, Van Tassel J, Peters T (1992) Anatomy, histology and pathology of coronary arteries: a review relevant to new interventional and imaging techniques: part I. Clin Cardiol 15:451–457
Baltaxe HA, Wixson D (1977) The incidence of congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries in the adult population. Radiology 122:47–52
Chaitman BR, Lesperance J, Saltiel J, Bourassa MG (1976) Clinical, angiographic, and hemodynamic findings in patients with anomalous origin of the coronary arteries. Circulation 53:122–131
Engel HJ, Torres C, Page HL (1975) Major variations in anatomical origin of the coronary arteries: angiographic observations in 4,250 patients without associated congenital heart disease. Catheter Cardiovasc Diagn 1:157–169
Garg N, Tewari S, Kapoor A, Gupta DK, Sinha N (2000) Primary congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries: a coronary arteriographic study. Int J Cardiol 74:39–46
Kimbiris D, Iskandrian AS, Segal BL, Bemin CE (1978) Anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries. Circulation 58:606–615
Levin DC, Fellows KE, Abrams HL (1978) Hemodynamically significant primary anomalies of the coronary arteries. Angiographic aspects. Circulation 58:25–34
Liberthson RR, Dinsmore RE, Fallon JT (1979) Aberrant coronary artery origin from the aorta. Report of 18 patients, review of literature and delineation of natural history and management. Circulation 59:748–754
Yamanaka O, Hobbs RE (1990) Coronary artery anomalies in 126.595 patients undergoing coronary arteriography. Catheter Cardiovasc Diagn 21:28–40
Wesselhoeft H, Fawcett JS, Johnson AL (1968) Anomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary trunk. Its clinical spectrum, pathology and pathophysiology, based on a review of 140 cases with seven further cases. Circulation 38:403–425
Cheitlin MD, De Castro CM, McAllister HA (1974) Sudden death as a complication of anomalous left coronary origin from the anterior sinus of Valsalva. A not-so-minor congenital anomaly. Circulation 50:780–787
Ishikawa T, Brandt PW (1985) Anomalous origin of the left main coronary artery from the right anterior aortic sinus: angiographic definition of anomalous course. Am J Cardiol 55:770–776
Serota H, Barth CW III, Seuc CA, Vandormael F, Aguirre F, Kern MJ (1990) Rapid identification of the course of anomalous coronary arteries in adults: the “dot and eye” method. Am J Cardiol 65:891–898
Taylor AM, Thorne SA, Rubens MP, Jhooti P, Keegan J, Gatehouse PD, Wiesmann F, Grothues F, Somerville J, Pennell DJ (2000) Coronary artery imaging in grown up congenital heart disease: complementary role of magnetic resonance and x-ray coronary angiography. Circulation 101:1670–1678
Kragel AH, Roberts WC (1988) Anomalous origin of either the right or left main coronary artery from the aorta with subsequent coursing between aorta and pulmonary trunk: analysis of 32 necropsy cases. Am J Cardiol 62:771–777
Roberts WC (1986) Major anomalies of coronary arterial origin seen in adulthood. Am Heart J 111:941–963
Basso C, Maron BJ, Corrado D, Thiene G (2000) Clinical profile of congenital coronary artery anomalies with origin from the wrong aortic sinus leading to sudden death in young competitive athletes. J Am Coll Cardiol 35:1493–1501
McConnell MV, Stuber M, Manning WJ (2000) Clinical role of coronary magnetic resonance angiography in the diagnosis of anomalous coronary arteries. J Cardiovasc Magn Reson 2:217–224
Virmani R, Burke AP, Farb A (2001) Sudden cardiac death. Cardiovasc Pathol 10:275–282
Cox ID, Bunce N, Fluck DS (2000) Failed sudden cardiac death in a patient with an anomalous origin of the right coronary artery. Circulation 102:1461–1462
Ropers D, Moshage W, Daniel WG, Jessl J, Gottwik M, Achenbach S (2001) Visualization of coronary artery anomalies and their anatomic course by contrast-enhanced electron beam tomography and three-dimensional reconstruction. Am J Cardiol 87:193–197
Yoshimura N, Hamada S, Takamiya M, Kuribayashi S, Kimura K (1998) Coronary artery anomalies with a shunt: evaluation with electron-beam CT. J Comput Assist Tomogr 22:682–686
Post JC, van Rossum AC, Bronzwaer JG, de Cock CC, Hofman MBM, Valk J, Visser CA (1995) Magnetic resonance angiography of anomalous coronary arteries. A new gold standard for delineating the proximal course? Circulation 92:3163–3171
Bunce NH, Lorenz CH, Keegan J, Lesser J, Reyes EM, Firmin DN, Pennell DJ (2003) Coronary artery anomalies: assessment with free-breathing three-dimensional coronary MR angiography. Radiology 227:201–208
Hamoir XL, Flohr T, Hamoir V, Labaki L, Triquet JY, Duhamel A, Kirsch J (2005) Coronary arteries: assessment of image quality and optimal reconstruction window in retrospective ECG-gated multislice CT at 375-ms gantry rotation time. Eur Radiol 15:296–304
Shi H, Aschoff AJ, Brambs HJ, Hoffmann MK (2004) Multislice CT imaging of anomalous coronary arteries. Eur Radiol 14:2172–2181
van Ooijen PMA, Dorgelo J, Zijlstra F, Oudkerk M (2004) Detection, visualization and evaluation of anomalous coronary anatomy on 16-slice multidetector-row CT. Eur Radiol 14:2163–2171
Kachelriess M, Ulzheimer S, Kalender WA (2000) ECG-correlated image reconstruction from subsecond multi-slice spiral CT scans of the heart. Med Phys 27:1881–1902
Reddy GP, Chernoff DM, Adams JR, Higgins CB (1998) Coronary artery stenoses: assessment with contrast-enhanced electron-beam CT and axial reconstructions. Radiology 208:167–172
Click RL, Holmes DR Jr, Vlietstra RE, Kosinski AS, Kronmal RA (1989) Anomalous coronary arteries: location, degree of atherosclerosis and effect on survival—a report from the Coronary Artery Surgery Group. J Am Coll Cardiol 13:531–537
Dicicco BS, McManus BM, Waller BF, Roberts WC (1982) Separate aortic ostium of the left anterior descending and left circumflex coronary arteries from the left aortic sinus of Valsalva (absent left main coronary artery). Am Heart J 104:153–154
Topaz O, DeMarchena EJ, Perin E, Sommer LS, Mallon SM, Chahine RA (1992) Anomalous coronary arteries: angiographic findings in 80 patients. Int J Cardiol 34:129–138
Le T, Laskey WK, McLaughin J, White C (1997) Utility of magnetic resonance imaging in a patient with anomalous origin of the right coronary artery, acute myocardial infarction, and near-sudden cardiac death. Catheter Cardiovasc Diagn 42:205–207
Frescura C, Basso C, Thiene G, Corrado D, Pennelli T, Angelini A, Daliento L (1998) Anomalous origin of coronary arteries and risk of sudden death: a study based on an autopsy population of congenital heart disease. Hum Pathol 29:689–695
Roberts WC, Siegel RJ, Zipes DP (1982) Origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of valsalva and its functional consequences: analysis of 10 necropsy patients. Am J Cardiol 49:863–868
Thompson SI, Vieweg WV, Alpert JS, Hagan AD (1976) Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the left sinus of Valsalva with associated chest pain: report of two cases. Catheter Cardiovasc Diagn 2:397–402
Roberts WC, Dicicco BS, Waller BF, Kishel JC, McManus BM, Dawson SL, Hunsaker JC III, Luke JL (1982) Origin of the left main from the right coronary artery or from the right aortic sinus with intramyocardial tunneling to the left side of the heart via the ventricular septum. The case against clinical significance of myocardial bridge or coronary tunnel. Am Heart J 104:303–305
Roberts WC, Kragel AH (1988) Anomalous origin of either the right or left main coronary artery from the aorta without coursing of the anomalistically arising artery between aorta and pulmonary trunk. Am J Cardiol 62:1263–1267
Page HL Jr, Engel HJ, Campbell WB, Thomas CS Jr (1974) Anomalous origin of the left circumflex coronary artery. Recognition, angiographic demonstration and clinical significance. Circulation 50:768–773
Samarendra P, Kumari S, Hafeez M, Vasavada BC, Sacchi TJ (2001) Anomalous circumflex coronary artery: benign or predisposed to selective atherosclerosis. Angiology 52:521–526
Silverman KJ, Bulkley BH, Hutchins GM (1978) Anomalous left circumflex coronary artery: “normal” variant of uncertain clinical and pathologic significance. Am J Cardiol 41:1311–1314
Ueno T, Nakayama Y, Yoshikai M, Watanabe Y, Minato N, Natsuaki M, Itoh T (1992) Unique manifestation of congenital coronary artery fistulas. Am Heart J 124:1388–1391
Kamiya H, Yasuda T, Nagamine H, Sakakibara N, Nishida S, Kawasuji M, Watanabe G (2002) Surgical treatment of congenital coronary artery fistulas: 27 years’ experience and a review of the literature. J Card Surg 17:173–177
Dirksen MS, Langerak SE, de Roos A, Vliegen HW, Jukema JW, Bax JJ, Wielopolski PA, van der Wall EE, Lamb HJ (2002) Images in cardiovascular medicine. Malignant right coronary artery anomaly detected by magnetic resonance angiography. Circulation 106:1881–1882
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schmitt, R., Froehner, S., Brunn, J. et al. Congenital anomalies of the coronary arteries: imaging with contrast-enhanced, multidetector computed tomography. Eur Radiol 15, 1110–1121 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-005-2707-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-005-2707-z