The prevalence and clinical profile of Angiographic Coronary Ectasia

Objective: to determine the incidence of coronary artery ectasia (cae) at our teaching hospital to describe the patients and angiographic characteristics.methods: a retrospective analysis was conducted on all coronary angiograms performed at the catheterization laboratory of karachi institute of heart diseases, a tertiary care center, between the period of august 2006 and august 2008. a one year follow up was performed to look for primary and secondary endpoints. data were collected from catheterization films, and medical records.results: five thousand coronary angiograms were performed during the periof of the study. a total of 140 (2.8%) angiograms showed coronary ectasia of both mixed and pure types. pure ectasia with no coronary obstructive lesions was seen in 75 (1.5%). the left anterior descending artery (lad) was the most commonly affected vessel (63%) followed by the right coronary artery (rca) 25% and 10% patients had circumflex artery involvement. the primary composite endpoint showed 6 (4.2%) patients with non-st elevation mi, 5 (3.6%) with st elevation inferior wall myocardial infarction, 70 (50%) with unstable angina and 2 (1.4%) deaths due to pulmonary oedema.secondary endpoints showed 50% of the patients still complaining of chest pain.conclusion: prevalence of coronary ectasia in the population presenting to kihd during the study period was 1.5%. majority of patients were males, associated with dyslipidaemia, hypertension and smoking. cae was associated with obstructive coronary artery disease in about 80% of cases. lad was the most commonly affected vessel.