Chinese Journal Of Clinical Anatomy ›› 2011, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (5): 524-526.

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Morphologic features of myocardial bridge and its relationship with coronary atherosclerosis

LIU Yun1, TANG Ren-kuan2, LI Jian-bo2   

  1. 1. Department of Forensic Medicine, North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong 637000,China;  2. Department of Forensic Medicine, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences, Chongqing 400016, China
  • Received:2010-12-22 Online:2011-09-25 Published:2011-09-29

Abstract:

Objective To investigate the relationship of coronary myocardial bridge (MB) and the coronary atherosclerosis. Methods Pathological changes of coronary artery and morphologic features of MB from autopsy specimens were retrospectively analyzed. Results MB was detected in 87 speciemns from all 251 autopsy cases, especially in aged cases, with the detection rate of 34.7%. MBs were mainly found on the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery and right coronary artery. One bridge was found in 79 (90.8%) of these hearts. 38 MB cases(43.7%)appeared coronary atherosclerosis of the proximal segment of myocardial bridge,33 cases of them (86.8%) exceeded Ⅲ degree of stenosis. The atherosclerosis of the distal segment of myocardial bridge appeared in 7 cases (8%), with the stenosis degree of Ⅱ. No atherosclerosis appeared in the inferior segment of myocardial bridges. Usually the length of MB occurred atherosclerosis exceeded 20mm. Conclusions Myocardial bridges can be recognized as an anatomical variation of the human coronary circulation, in which an epicardial artery lies in the myocardium for part of its course. For aged people, it is easy to appear proximal and distal myocardial bridges, which are predilection site of atherosclerosis, especially the proximal segment.

Key words: Myocardial bridge, Macroscopic observations, Coronary artery, Atherosclerosis

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