The angiographic aspects of myocardial bridges in Turkish patients who have undergone coronary angiography

<p><b>INTRODUCTION</b>Little is known of the clinical significance of myocardial bridges, which may be recognised as the narrowing of the systolic coronary artery as seen in an angiography. In this study, our goal was to review the literature information about the anatomic aspects, the clinical manifestations and implications, and the angiographic characteristics.</p><p><b>MATERIALS AND METHODS</b>The angiographic data of 7200 adult patients undergoing coronary angiography were retrospectively analysed for the diagnosis of myocardial bridge. The main angiographic evidence of a myocardial bridge that we required was the narrowing of a systolic coronary artery resulting in at least 50% reduction of lumen diameter in comparison with the diastolic phase. All coronary angiograms were reviewed independently by at least 2 of the authors and the case was included only if there was a consensus that the myocardial bridge resulted in 50% narrowing or more.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Myocardial bridge was present in 29 (0.4%) of the 7200 coronary angiographies. The location of the myocardial bridge was in the left anterior descending coronary artery in 28 cases (96.5%), and the left circumflex coronary artery in 1 case (3.4%). Myocardial bridge was most common in the middle segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery (78.5 %). Each of these patients with myocardial bridge was referred for angiography because of symptom of chest pain alone or symptom of chest pain, palpitations and dyspnoea. Of the 29 patients with myocardial bridge, 2 patients without any symptom, demonstrated ischaemia as assessed by Tc- 99m MIBI myocardial perfusion scintigraphy.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Chest pain was the common reason for angiography in patients with myocardial bridge. The incidence of myocardial bridge may vary according to population. Myocardial bridge is more frequently found in the middle segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery.</p>

effect of age and gender on the anatomic structure of Caucasian healthy eyelids

To determine the normal values of the eyelid parameters in Caucasians and to describe the effects of age and gender on eyelid and eyebrow anatomy. We evaluated the effects of age and gender on eyelid structures in 100 Caucasian volunteers in the Ophthalmology and Anatomy Departments, University of Gaziantep Medical School, Turkey between 2003 and 2004. Forty-five females with mean age of 36 years [5-80 years] and 55 males with mean age of 39 years [3-68 years] participated in the study. We divided subjects into 6 groups according to decades. We measured the palpebral fissure length [PFL], the distance between the pupil center and the upper eyelid [PC-UE] and lower eyelid margin [PC-LE], the eyebrow height [EH], the eye crease height [ECH] and the distance from the reference line to the pupil center [RL-PC], using a reference line through the medial canthus and vertical line through the pupil center of the frontal slides. The measurements of PFL were between 23.5 mm and 29 mm in females, 24.8 mm and 29.1 mm in males and showed a gradual decrease with age. The PC-UE, PC-LE, ECH and RL-PC remained stable throughout life and were identical for both gender. However, EH ranging from 10.7 - 12 mm in females and 6.5 - 11 mm in males appeared to have a significant association with gender, which was higher in females than males, but was not effected with age. These results demonstrate the importance of providing a normal anatomic relationship that relates to the patient's age and gender

Single coronary artery arising from the left sinus of valsalva

A single coronary artery is a rare congenital anomaly of the coronary arteries where only one coronary artery arises from the aortic trunk by a single coronary ostium, supplying the entire heart. We report a case of a 57-year-old woman with atypical chest pain, in whom coronary angiography showed a L-I subtype single coronary artery [arising from a single ostium in the left sinus of valsalva] without associated cardiovascular disease. The clinical significance and subtype of the single coronary artery are discussed