Preoperative Evaluation of Right Gastroepiploic Artery with CT-Angiography / 日本心臓血管外科学会雑誌

ABSTRACT

It is a common notion that the right gastroepiploic artery (RGEA) tends to exhibit more hardening than the internal thoracic artery (ITA) and that it shows varied development among patients, since RGEAs are structurally rich in musculature. Therefore, a preoperative examination should be conducted to determine whether or not they are appropriate for grafting. In general, catheter-angiography is widely employed for such examinations. Our recent research on the availability of CT-angiography as an alternative has revealed that CT-angiography is a minimally-invasive, simple way of testing, and provides very clear and detailed angiographical pictures. We therefore concluded that it was a highly effective method in deciding the appropriateness of RGEA for graft.