title: Extent of coronary collateral vessel decrease with advanced age.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Animal experiments show that angiogenesis, responsible for the development of collaterals, impairs with increasing age. We retrospectively investigated the relationship between the extent of coronary collaterals and age in patients who had total occlusion in at least one of their epicardial coronary arteries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The records of 2160 consecutive patients who had undegone coronary angiography were examined. The coronary collaterals of the 720 patients who had total occlusion in at least one epicardial artery were evaluated according to the Rentrop scoring system. The patients were divided into four groups according to age: age < 50 years (group 1), > or = 50 years and < 60 years (group 2), > or = 60 years and < 70 years (group 3) and > 70 years (group 4). A Rentrop score of 1 to 3 was accepted as a reliable measure of presence of coronary collaterals. The gender distribution was statistically comparable among the groups. The percentage of the coronary collaterals was as follows: 67% in group 1, 47% in group 2, 48% in group 3 and 28% in group 4. The extent of coronary collaterals was significantly lower in group 4 compared with group 1 (p < 0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The extent of coronary collaterals seems to decrease significantly with advanced age.
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: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003097:Collateral Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies