Coronary Ectasia — An Angiographic Survey

Abstract

Introduction: Coronary ectasia is a localized dilatation of one or more coronary segments as compared to adjacent normal vessels. CASS definition requires a dilatation of at least 1.5 times normal to be labelled as ectasia’. The condition is recognized on angiography usually performed for evaluation of suspected coronary artery. The reported prevalence ranges between 1.5 -4% of angiograms. Though of unknown aetiology. certain associations have been observed which include male sex, smoking, coronary artery diseae, familial hypcrcholcstrolcmia, and a-I anti trypsin exixss. The condition generally runs a benign course. We are reporting the prevalence of coronary ectasia and its various attributes in Pakistani population. Materials & Methods: We reviewed the reports of all angiograms performed at our institute during the year 1996 (1214 in total), and identified the angiograms which had mentioned presence of ectatic morphology. Angiography films of the cases thus identified were obtained and reviewed by us for confirmation of the findings and qualitative as wellas quantitative assessment. Discussion: Coronary artery ectasia, an interesting angiographic finding, is a localized dilatation of coronary artery with at least 1.5 times the diameter of non-involved vessel.