[Blood flow in the transplant after aorto-coronary bypass]

With the help of an electromagnetic flowmeter the authors measured the blood flow in the graft during aorto-coronary bypass procedures. The flow was measured in 74 patients with 88 bypass grafts, along them--in 43 grafts to the right coronary artery, in 31 grafts to the anterior interventricular artery, and in 14 cases of double aoroto-coronary bypass grafts. In 21 cases the flow was measured in the coronary artery graft after endarterectomy. The analysis has demonstrated that the flow in the graft depends on many factors, the leading among which is the severity of the coronary lesion, the state of its distal portion and of the cardiac muscle in the zone of the diseased coronary artery. A direct relationship was established between the degree of the narrowing of the proximal coronaries and the flow values in the graft connected with the artery in question. The greater the stenosis in the proximal portion of the coronary artery, the higher the blood flow in the bypass. The highest blood flow was registered in cases of complete coronary occlusions. Blood flow measurements in the bypass grafts during surgery help to determine the amount of blld supplied to the revascularized myocardium and, hence, to assess the direct efficacy of the aorto-coronary bypass procedures in the management of the ischaemic heart disease.