An Unusual Case of Aortic-Right Atrium Fistula: A Diagnostic and Therapeutic Challenge

An aorta-to-right atrium (RA) fistula is an anomalous communication between the ascending or descending thoracic aorta and the RA. In this report, we describe a case of an idiopathic aortic root-to-RA fistula occasionally found during a coronary angiography performed in a young patient admitted for acute chest pain with evidence of multivessel coronary artery disease. The anatomical peculiarity of this fistulous communication is that it gave origin to collateral vessels furnishing the inferolateral wall of the left ventricle. The case represented a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge that required a multimodality imaging and a multidisciplinary team approach.