[Abnormal aortic origin of coronary arteries]
Juan M Bonelli1, Ana M Schroh2, Alejandro Peirone3
1Servicio de Tomografía Axial Computarizada, Fundación Escuela de Medicina Nuclear (FUESMEN), Mendoza, Argentina.
Insights
Anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries is rare but can cause sudden death or complications during cardiac procedures. Early detection through imaging techniques like echocardiography and CT angiography is crucial for patient management.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Imaging
- Congenital Heart Disease
- Interventional Cardiology
Context:
- Anomalous aortic origin of the coronary arteries (AAOCA) affects 0.02-5.7% of the population.
- AAOCA can lead to sudden cardiac death, especially with interarterial or intramural pathways.
- These anomalies pose risks during interventions on cardiac structures.
Purpose:
- To identify patients with anomalous aortic origin of coronary arteries using imaging modalities.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography (TTE), CT multislice angiography, and coronary angiography in detecting AAOCA.
Summary:
- Fifteen patients with AAOCA were identified.
- Transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography (TTE) raised suspicion in 12 patients; CT multislice angiography was diagnostic in 3.
- The circumflex artery was most frequently involved (12/15), with other cases involving right and anterior descending coronary arteries with interarterial courses.
Impact:
- Underdiagnosis of AAOCA by TTE can occur due to visualization challenges, particularly with age.
- Accurate detection of AAOCA is vital for preventing sudden death.
- Identifying AAOCA is critical for mitigating complications during interventional procedures.
Introduction:
The anomalous aortic origin of the coronary arteries has an estimated prevalence of 0.02-5.7%. It can be associated with sudden death when it has an interarterial or intramural pathway or be damaged during interventions on the mitral, pulmonary and/or aortic annulus or percutaneous closure of an interatrial septal defect.
Objective:
To identify these patients by imaging techniques such as transthoracic color Doppler echocardiography (TTE), computed tomography (CT) multislice angiography or coronary angiography.
Methods:
The imaging techniques used for the detection of coronary anomalies were TTE, multislice coronary angiography or coronary angiography according to what is generally accepted.
Results:
Fifteen patients were identified; in 12 of them the suspicion was due to TTE and in the remaining 3, CT multislice angiography was diagnostic. The circumflex artery was the coronary artery most involved, associated or not with another coronary anomaly (12/15 patients) and in the other three cases, the anomalous coronary artery had an interarterial course, with the right coronary arteries and the anterior descending coronary arteries being involved.
Conclusions:
The under diagnosis by TTE of coronary artery abnormalities may be due to the difficulty of visualization that is accentuated with age. Their detection is crucial because they can both, lead to sudden death associated with an intramural and/or interarterial pathway and complicate an interventional procedure on the interatrial septum or within the mitral, pulmonary and/or aortic rings.
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