Effect of sex, hemodynamics, body size, and other clinical variables on the corrected thrombolysis in myocardial infarction frame count used as an assessment of coronary blood flow.
BACKGROUND
Compared with the conventional Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade system, the corrected TIMI frame count (CTFC) quantifies coronary blood flow in a more reproducible fashion. The purpose of this study was to determine if the CTFC is affected by sex, body size, hemodynamics, or other selected clinical variables.


RESULTS
CTFC was measured in 534 coronary arteries from 200 consecutive patients referred for coronary angiography. CTFC in each artery was related to patient variables (sex, age, race, and body surface area), clinical variables (cardiac rhythm, medication use, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, smoking, and left ventricular hypertrophy), angiographic variables (wall motion abnormality in each coronary artery distribution, left ventricular ejection fraction, percent stenosis in the artery, and presence of collaterals), and hemodynamic variables (aortic systolic and diastolic blood pressure and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure). By multivariate analysis, CTFC in all arteries was significantly associated with aortic systolic and diastolic pressures and body surface area. In addition, there were significant associations between CTFC and age and sex in some but not all arteries. Although significant, the absolute change in CTFC associated with these variables was small.


CONCLUSIONS
CTFC provides a quantitative assessment of coronary blood flow that varies only a small amount in association with body size, systemic arterial pressure, age, and sex.
Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at the University of North Carolina Hospitals and the Cardiology Division of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27514, USA.
B A
BA
Faile
J A
JA
Guzzo
D A
DA
Tate
T C
TC
Nichols
S C
SC
Smith
G J
GJ
Dehmer
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001824:Body Constitution; D002932:Cineangiography / Q000187:drug effects*; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000187:drug effects*; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012737:Sex Factors; D015912:Thrombolytic Therapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome