Differential local spasticity in myocardial bridges
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Updated: May 21, 2026

Magnetic Resonance Derived Myocardial Strain Assessment Using Feature Tracking
Published on: February 12, 2011
Paolo Angelini1, Carlo Uribe, Pablo Lozano
1Division of Cardiology, Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. PAngelini@leachmancardiology.com
Abstract:
To illustrate the effect of myocardial bridges on coronary vascular tone, we describe the cases of 2 patients with different clinical presentations in the context of reproducible increased spasticity at the site of myocardial bridging. One had an episode of takotsubo cardiomyopathy, and one developed typical Prinzmetal angina while receiving desmopressin treatment for pituitary insufficiency. In both patients, acetylcholine challenge clearly revealed both the presence and the severity of myocardial bridging while producing several recognizable degrees of abnormal spastic tendency.Both baseline functional states and responses to different medications correlate with spastic tendency and enable the characterization of individual cases. Understanding the spectrum of spastic conditions might help to clarify the causes of atypical ischemic events, especially in patients with myocardial bridging.
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