[Assessment of right gastroepiploic artery grafts by thallium scintigraphy]

From 1990 to 1996 we performed coronary artery bypass grafting using only arterial grafts. Both pre- and post-operative thallium-201 exercise myocardial scintigraphy were evaluated in 68 cases (161 grafts). The rate of improvement (%) was defined as follows: (number that showed improvement of perfusion of thallium on post-operative scintigraphy/number that showed decreased perfusion of thallium on pre-operative scintigraphy) x 100. Examination was made separately regarding cases of ischemia (102 grafts) and infarction (54 grafts). For ischemic cases, the rate of improvement using left internal thoracic artery (LITA), right internal thoracic artery (RITA) and right gastroepiploic artery (RGEA) was 80% (12/15), 70% (7/10) and 71% (5/7) respectively. For infarction cases, the rate of improvement using LITA, RITA and RGEA was 54% (7/13), 60% (6/10) and 53% (9/17) respectively. Among these three groups no significant differences were noted. As a result, RGEA is thought to have usefulness equivalent to LITA and RITA.