title: Coronary sinus filling time: a novel method to assess microcirculatory function in patients with angina and normal coronaries.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Dysfunction of the coronary microcirculation is considered as one of the factors responsible for symptoms and abnormal stress tests in patients with angina and normal coronaries (syndrome X). We sought to evaluate the usefulness of coronary sinus filling time (CSFT) to assess coronary microcirculation in this group of patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the CSFT of patients having definite angina or atypical angina with positive treadmill electrocardiography test (angina group), with that of patients undergoing coronary angiogram (CAG) prior to balloon mitral valvuloplasty (control group). During CAG, coronary sinus was visualized in appropriate views and CSFT in seconds was derived from frame count. Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) flow grade, corrected TIMI (cTIMI) frame count, TIMI Myocardial Perfusion grade (TMP) were assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 41 patients in angina group and 16 in control group. Among the angina group 68.8% were females as against 81.8% in the control group. 87.8% (n = 36) had typical angina. Mean CSFT was 4.25 ± 0.72 s and 3.46 ± 0.99 s in the angina group and control group respectively (p = 0.001). No significant differences were found between the groups with respect to TMP (p = 0.68) & cTIMI frame count (p = 0.22).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CSFT is a simple method to assess the transit time through coronary microcirculation. CSFT was significantly delayed in patients with angina and normal coronaries. TMP and cTIMI frame count were not significantly different between groups.
authors: Govt. Medical College, Kozhikode, India.
authors: Vellani
authors: V
authors: Haridasan
authors: Deepak
authors: D
authors: Nandan
authors: Deepak
authors: D
authors: Raju
authors: Gopalan Nair
authors: GN
authors: Rajesh
authors: C G
authors: CG
authors: Sajeev
authors: Desabandhu
authors: D
authors: Vinayakumar
authors: Kader
authors: K
authors: Muneer
authors: Kadangot
authors: K
authors: Babu
authors: M N
authors: MN
authors: Krishnan
mesh_terms: D060050:Angina, Stable / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D054326:Coronary Sinus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011859:Radiography
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