title: An investigation of the association between coronary artery dominance and coronary artery variations with coronary arterial disease by multidetector computed tomographic coronary angiography.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Depending on the perfusing interventricular septum of the arteries, there are 3 types of circulation dominance: right, left, and balanced. In this study, coronary artery branches supplying the ventricular septum were investigated in vivo in a large group of patients by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) coronary angiography. In addition, the association of coronary artery variations with coronary arterial disease was investigated.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 325 consecutive patients (214 men and 108 women, with a mean age of 59 +/- 14 years) who underwent MDCT coronary angiography. Multidetector computed tomography was performed with a 16-detector-row computed tomographic scanner. The type of dominance, coronary arterial diseases, and coronary artery variations were recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In our study, the types of coronary circulation were right, left, and balanced in 227 (70%), 40 (12.5%), and 58 (17.5%) patients, respectively. Dominance of right circulation was detected in 150 of 217 (69%) of men and in 77 of 108 (71%) of women; dominance of left circulation was found in 26 of 217(12%) of men and in 14 of 108 (13%) of women; balanced/codominance circulation was found in 41 of 217 (19%) of men and in 17 of 108 (16%) of women. However, no significant differences were detected between the sexes for the type of coronary circulation. Coronary artery disease was determined in 68 patients (20.9%) by MDCT, and coronary artery variations were also determined in 34 patients (10.4%). Both the number and the rate of coronary artery variations were significantly higher among the patients with left artery dominance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Knowledge of coronary artery variations and pathologies is important in planning the treatment and in interpretation of findings of cardiovascular diseases. Our study indicated that, although right dominance circulation is more common in general population, both the coronary diseases and coronary artery variations are more common in individuals with left dominance circulation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Medical Faculty, Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Suat
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eren
authors.forename: Ednan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bayram
authors.forename: Fadime
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Fil
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koplay
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sirvanci
authors.forename: Cihan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Duran
authors.forename: M Erdem
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Sagsoz
authors.forename: Samih
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Diyarbakir
authors.forename: Adnan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okur
authors.forename: Mecit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kantarci
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology