Diagnosis of coronary artery fistulas: clinical aspects and brief review of the literature.
An 86-year-old woman with history of hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and coronary artery disease was admitted with new-onset congestive heart failure and pneumonia. She underwent coronary angiography after suffering a non-ST elevation myocardial infarction. There was severe coronary artery disease in addition to coronary artery-pulmonary fistulas involving proximal right coronary artery and a branch of left main coronary artery. Coronary artery fistula (CAF) is an abnormal communication between one or more coronary arteries and great vessels or a cardiac chamber. We reviewed 15 cases of CAFs published in PubMed and studied the clinical features of CAFs.
Department of Hospital Medicine, Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Umesh M
UM
Sharma
Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Ahmed F
AF
Aslam
Department of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, La Crosse, Wisconsin ; Division of Cardiovascular Diseases, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
Tahir
T
Tak
angiography; cardiac catheterization; congestive heart failure; coronary arteries; fistulas