Project description:BackgroundAnomalous origin of the left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is a rare congenital coronary anomaly. The enlarged right coronary artery provides retrograde collaterals to supply the left ventricle then preferentially directs into the lower pressure pulmonary artery system causing coronary steal phenomenon. Few patients who survive through adulthood without surgery must have abundant, well-formed functioning collaterals with adequate perfusion of the left ventricle. We present the oldest reported patient with ALCAPA to undergo corrective surgery.Case presentationA 79-year-old woman presented with a 3-months history of worsening shortness of breath and orthopnea. Physical examination discovered a soft continuous murmur at the left upper chest. Transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated an unusual, tubular-like structure inside the interventricular septum with a turbulent flow from color Doppler. Moreover, there was a severe mitral regurgitation from posterior mitral leaflet restriction associated with ventricular remodeling in combination with mitral annular dilatation. Coronary angiography and coronary computed tomography angiography established the diagnostic hallmark of ALCAPA syndrome. Stress cardiovascular magnetic resonance perfusion imaging demonstrated no myocardial ischemia suggesting adequate collateral circulation. Remarkably, there was a left coronary ostial stenosis, which served as a protective mechanism against myocardia ischemia by limiting the steal effect. The patient successfully underwent the ligation of anomalous artery at its origin in combination with bioprosthetic mitral valve replacement. Her postoperative course was uneventful.ConclusionsThis case utilized multimodality imaging for delineating the course of abnormal vessels and helping to formulate therapeutic decision.
Project description:Background: Collateral artery growth, also termed arteriogenesis, occurs upon narrowing or occlusion of a major artery. To date, attempts to stimulate arteriogenesis in patients for therapeutic purposes have not been successful. Experimental models showed that circulating cells orchestrate arteriogenesis. In humans, a large heterogeneity exists in the arteriogenic response. We hypothesized that good arteriogenic responders (GARs) and bad arteriogenic responders (BARs) differ in gene expression profiles of circulating cells, thereby disclosing potential new therapeutic strategies for the stimulation of arteriogenesis. Methods: A total of 45 patients scheduled for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for single-vessel coronary artery disease underwent intracoronary measurements of collateral flow index (CFI) to distinguish between GARs (CFI>0.21) and BARs (CFI≤0.21). Monocytes and CD34+ stem cells were collected from peripheral blood. A fraction of monocytes was further processed to obtain stimulated monocytes and macrophages. Whole genome transcriptome analysis was performed on all four cell types. Results: LPS-stimulated monocytes showed 244 genes differentially expressed (false discovery rate < 0.05) between GARs and BARs. Macrophage gene expression correlated with stimulated monocytes, while resting monocytes and stem cells revealed no differential gene expression. Stimulated monocytes from GARs showed a strongly attenuated response in several interferon- and apoptosis-related genes, which was corroborated at the protein level. Conclusions Circulating cells from GARs and BARs distinctively differ in their gene expression profiles upon stimulation. The reduced expression of interferon and apoptosis genes in GARs may lead to novel therapeutic approaches for the stimulation of collateral artery growth. Keywords: disease state analysis, stress response analysis, natural defense mechanism analysis
Project description:Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is one of the rare causes of acute coronary syndrome in young healthy individuals especially women without having any conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease. We describe a case of 34-year-old healthy man with diffuse multiple SCADs who presented with acute coronary syndrome and was managed conservatively with an uneventful course on long-term follow-up.
Project description:In the present study, we performed transcriptome expression analyses in three independent peripheral blood-derived monocyte subpopulations from patients with chronic coronary occlusions (CTO) and tested for arteriogenesis. Whole-genome mRNA expression analyses were performed on these three monocyte subpopulations, namely: (1) unstimulated-, (2) 3 hours LPS-stimulated-, (3) monocyte-derived macrophages. Whole-genome mRNA expression analysis amongst others confirmed increased expression of IFNbeta-regulated genes in patients with insufficient coronary collateralization (collateral flow index (CFI) ≤0.37 “nonresponders”), compared with patients having sufficient collateralization (CFI>0.37 “responders”).
Project description:Incidental findings are not uncommon in echocardiography. A transthoracic echocardiogram (TTE) of an adult woman with arterial hypertension showed a tubular structure with hyperechoic walls in the atrial side of the atrioventricular groove in apical views. Coronary computed tomography angiography correlated this finding with a retroaortic course of the anomalous circumflex artery (retroaortic anomalous coronary artery [RAC], benign coronary artery variant). Recently described as the RAC sign on TTE, practitioners should be aware of this finding to avoid mistaken it as artifacts, catheters/leads, or calcified mitral annulus.