[Assessment of blood flow of the internal thoracic artery in patients with aortic stenosis].
The number of patients undergoing combined aortic valve replacement (AVR) for aortic stenosis (AS) and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) has been increasing. In CABG, the internal thoracic artery (ITA) is the preferred conduit for its long-term patency. Although Doppler studies on ITA have been widely used, flow characteristics of the vessel in patients with AS have not been reported. To evaluate blood flow pattern of the ITA in AS, duplex scanning was performed in 10 patients before and after AVR. Peak systolic velocity was measured, and blood flow was calculated from mean velocity and cross-sectional area. The mean diameters of the vessels were approximately 1.8 mm on both sides. AVR caused an increase in systolic velocities from 61.2 cm/sec to 85.5 cm/sec in right ITA and from 58.4 cm/sec to 84.7 cm/sec in left ITA. The flow volumes increased from 32.2 ml/min to 46.7 ml/min in right and increased from 31.6 ml/min to 46.3 ml/min in left after AVR. In simultaneous AVR for AS and CABG, suitability of the ITA should be assessed before its use, and concomitant AVR may be quite important to provide adequate flow of the ITA as a conduit.
Sasahashi
N
N
Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hyogo Kenritsu Amagasaki Hospital, Amagasaki, Japan.
Nomoto
S
S
Paku
M
M
Otani
S
S
Saito
F
F
Kim
K
K
Morishima
M
M
Sekine
Y
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery; D001024:Aortic Valve Stenosis / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001026:Coronary Artery Bypass; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008323:Mammary Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional