title: Angiographic demonstration of no-flow anatomical patency of internal thoracic-coronary artery bypass grafts.
abstract: To clarify the no-flow situation of the stringlike internal thoracic artery graft, we angiographically examined such grafts by temporarily occluding the recipient coronary artery with a percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty balloon and were able to reveal anatomical patency of the internal thoracic artery graft in 2 patients 1 year and 3 years after the operations. Thus, there is a possibility that internal thoracic artery grafts may continuously maintain anatomical patency even under no-flow situations just like nonfunctioning collateral vessels and may function properly later as a graft when the native coronary flow decreases. Also, this angiographic technique can be a new method for detecting anatomical patency of no-flow and functionally closed internal thoracic artery grafts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery III, Nara Medical College, Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawachi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seki
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sawabata
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morita
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawata
mesh_terms: D000714:Anastomosis, Surgical; D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013895:Thoracic Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000637:transplantation*; D014654:Vascular Patency