Vol 81, No 3 (2023)
Clinical vignette
Published online: 2023-01-02

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Unique anomaly of the left coronary system

Gualter Silva1, Ana Rita Moura2, Wilson Ferreira1, Eduardo Vilela1, Nuno Ferreira1
Pubmed: 36594534
Kardiol Pol 2023;81(3):304-305.

Abstract

Not available

Clinical vignette

Unique anomaly of the left coronary system

Gualter Silva1*Ana Rita Moura2*Wilson Ferreira1Eduardo Vilela1Nuno Ferreira1
1Department ofCardiology, Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho, Portugal
2Department ofCardiology, Hospital Distrital de Santarém, Santarém, Portugal
*Both authors equally contributed to the study

Correspondence to:

Gualter Silva, MD,

Department of Cardiology,

Centro Hospitalar Vila Nova de Gaia/Espinho,

Rua Conceição Fernandes S/N, 4434-502, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal,

phone: +35 191 930 73 12,

e-mail: gualterssilva@gmail.com

Copyright by the Author(s), 2023

DOI: 10.33963/KP.a2023.0009

Received: December 1, 2022

Accepted: January 2, 2023

Early publication date: January 10, 2023

A 45-year-old man with prior history of cognitive, visual, and auditory deficits and a horseshoe kidney presented with tiredness, dyspnea on exertion, and atypical chest pain. Physical examination was unremarkable. His electrocardiogram showed sinus rhythm and left axis deviation while echocardiography demonstrated global hypokinesia of the left ventricle (LV) with mildly reduced ejection fraction. In this setting, computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) was performed, showing an anomalous origin of the left main artery (LM) from a separate ostium located in the right aortic sinus of Valsalva. Immediately after its origin, the LM bifurcated into the left anterior descending artery (LAD) that presented a prepulmonic course and the circumflex artery (LCx) with a subpulmonic position (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Three-dimensional computed tomography reconstruction (AC) and MIP (D) images showing an anomalous origin of the left main artery from the right coronary sinus (black arrow), and prepulmonic course of the LAD (blue arrow) and subpulmonic course of the LCx (orange arrow)
Abbreviations: Ao, aorta; LAD, left anterior descending artery; LCx, left circumflex artery; MIP, maximum intensity projection; Pa, pulmonary artery

No compression or luminal narrowing was present. The right coronary artery had a normal origin and course. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) showed a non-dilated LV with mild systolic dysfunction, with normal native T1 and no late gadolinium enhancement. There was no evidence of ischemia on adenosine stress-perfusion CMR. No clear etiology for LV dysfunction was identified. Given the benign course of the coronary arteries, the patient was kept under optimal medical management.

Anomalous origin of the coronary arteries is a rare finding [1]. When present, it is pivotal to rule out malignant courses and other high-risk anatomical features. CTCA can be particularly useful in depicting the course of the vessels and their relationships with surrounding structures [2, 3]. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the first case description of the LM originating in the right aortic sinus of Valsalva, with the LAD and LCx having two independent and different benign courses.

Article information

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Funding: None.

Open access: This article is available in open access under Creative Common Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license, allowing to download articles and share them with others as long as they credit the authors and the publisher, but without permission to change them in any way or use them commercially. For commercial use, please contact the journal office at kardiologiapolska@ptkardio.pl.

REFERENCES

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  3. Cheezum MK, Liberthson RR, Shah NR, et al. Anomalous aortic origin of a coronary artery from the inappropriate sinus of Valsalva. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2017; 69(12): 15921608, doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.01.031, indexed in Pubmed: 28335843.



Polish Heart Journal (Kardiologia Polska)