Prevalence of myocardial bridging detected with 64-slice multidetector coronary computed tomography angiography in asymptomatic adults.
OBJECTIVE
Myocardial bridging is a congenital condition in which a segment of an epicardial artery has an intramural course within the myocardium. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of myocardial bridging and the ability of 64-slice coronary computed tomography angiography to identify myocardial bridging in asymptomatic adults.


METHODS
One hundred sixty-nine consecutive asymptomatic subjects underwent 64-row multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) of the coronary arteries. Two experienced CT radiologists identified myocardial bridging >1 mm in thickness, by consensus. We examined the frequency of myocardial bridging and evaluated the length, thickness, and coronary wall lesions.


RESULTS
Myocardial bridges were found in 28 (17%) of 165 subjects. Twenty-one subjects (75%) had 1 bridge and 7 subjects (25%) had 2, for a total of 35 myocardial bridges. Twenty-one bridges (60%) were located in the left anterior descending, 8.5% in the diagonal branch, and 2.8% in the circumflex arteries. The segment beneath the myocardial bridge was always free of coronary wall plaques, but the arterial segment proximal to it had significant coronary wall plaques in 24 cases (68.6%).


CONCLUSIONS
We found that the incidence of myocardial bridging in asymptomatic adults is 7%, which is in agreement with some pathologic studies in the literature. Our study shows that MDCT of the coronary arteries is a reliable and noninvasive technique, which can accurately locate the site of myocardial bridging, and measure its thickness, course, and length.
Atar
Eli
E
Department of Radiology, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tiqwa 49100, Israel.
Kornowski
Ran
R
Fuchs
Shmuell
S
Naftali
Noa
N
Belenky
Alexander
A
Bachar
Gil N
GN
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054084:Myocardial Bridging / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*