Coronary myocardial bridge imaging by stress-echocardiography and coronary adipose tissue attenuation on computed tomography angiography

Abstract

Myocardial bridging is a congenital defect characterized by the course of a segment of the coronary arteries within the heart muscle most frequently affecting the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD). Patients with myocardial bridging may present with episodes of exertional anginal chest pain. The gold standard for non-invasive diagnosis of myocardial bridge is coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA), which allows anatomical characterization. Coronary flow velocity reserve (CFVR) of the LAD on stress echocardiography (SE) can play an important role in the diagnosis of myocardial bridging of the LAD; a relationship between CVFR-LAD and coronary inflammation by estimating the attenuation of peri-coronary adipose tissue at CCTA has been demonstrated in patients without obstructive ischaemic heart disease. Therefore, coronary inflammation localized to the LAD has been assessed in patients diagnosed with myocardial bridging of the LAD and previous SE with CFVR-LAD in a case series.