https://doi.org/10.15344/2456-446X/2016/107
Abstract
Myocardial bridges (MBs) are congenital anomalies, considered normal variants with an intramural course of a portion of one or morecoronary arteries. The real incidence of this entity is unknown and varies according to the procedure used to study it: MBs are rare in patients referred for cardiac surgery or invasive coronary angiography (ICA) while they are frequentlyfound during autopsy and cardiac computed tomography (CCT) studies.
Although autopsy is the best way to study MBs, till the last decade, the only way to study this anomaly, in vivo, was with ICA. Recently CCT, compared to ICA, proved to have a good accuracy in evaluating coronary artery diseases and in particular those related to the congenital anomalies, and more interestingly to provide this information non-invasively.
From the analysis of a patient who was sent to us to be studied with a CCT for a suspected coronary artery disease, and in whom we found a MB,but no atherosclerotic lesions, we took the opportunity to present a mini-review on MBs. We describe the diagnostic procedures as well the therapeutic alternatives. Particular attention was paid to those studies on MBs performed with CCT.