title: Atherosclerotic involvement in patients with left or right dominant coronary circulation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are variations in the anatomy of the coronary arteries in patients with left dominant circulation. The influence of anatomical variations in patients with left dominant circulation on coronary arteriosclerosis is not clear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We investigated whether atherosclerotic involvement in patients with left dominant circulation differs from that in patients with right dominant circulation.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively compared 38 consecutive angiograms with left coronary dominance with 459 consecutive angiograms with right coronary dominance. By using the 29-segment coding system of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association, numerical values were given to each segment, according to the percentage of the decrease in luminary diameter. Using, the sum of numerical values in each coronary artery, LAD score, LCx score, RCA score, and left main coronary artery (LMCA) score were obtained. Using the sum of these 4 vessel scores, the coronary artery disease (CAD) score was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Total LAD score (49+/-48 vs 47+/-57), total LCx score (29+/-45 vs 41+/-58), total RCA score (32+/-68 vs 30+/-51), total LMCA score (1.8+/-11.3 vs 2.9+/-13.6) and total CAD score (108+/-108 vs 108+/-123) were similar in patients with left and right dominant circulation (all differences NS).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The extent of coronary atherosclerosis does not depend on the type of dominant coronary circulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun, Turkey. bahattinbalci@ttnet.net.tr
authors.forename: Bahattin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Balci
authors.forename: Ozcan
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Yilmaz
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies