Introduction: The normative data of coronary artery size among Indians are sparse. It is often essential to know the coronary dimensions especially during interventions such as stenting to choose the appropriate size of the stent and to decide the very need for stenting. In current practice it is the luminal angiography which is most widely employed to assess the coronary artery size. However, luminal angiography is not very accurate in estimating the epicardial coronary artery size as it does not take into account the mural thickness of the arterial wall. Hence it is prudent to assess coronary artery size by other methods such as Computed Tomography (CT) coronary angiography, quantitative coronary angiogram, Magnetic Resonanace (MR) angiogram, etc. In this study we chose computed tomography as it demonstrates mural thickness along with lumen of the vessels and hence measures the diameter more accurately.
Aim: To establish normative data for diameters of the proximal coronary artery segments during life by using MDCT in a cohort of individuals without any structural heart disease.
Materials and methods: Between October 2012 and April 2013, 168 consecutive patients who did not have any structural heart disease underwent CT coronary angiography for evaluation of Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) with atypical symptoms with low pretest probability. Patients who were found to have no coronary artery disease on CT-CAG were recruited in this study. The baseline clinical status and demographic data were obtained from the hospital records.
Results: In our study we found that the mean indexed diameter to BSA among females for LMCA 2.32±0.12mm, LAD 1.95±0.15mm, LCX 1.73±0.20mm and RCA 1.84±0.22mm. For males the values were LMCA 2.33±0.13mm, LAD 1.94±0.16mm, LCX 1.74±0.21mm, and RCA 1.79±0.20mm. These values are comparable to other studies.
Conclusion: We attempted to establish normative data for normal proximal coronary artery dimensions among South Indian population. Coronary artery dimensions in Indians (in-dexed to BSA) for proximal major epicardial coronary arteries are similar to that reported in the West.
Keywords: CT angiogram; CTA; Cardiac CT; Coronary CT; MDCT; Normal diameters.