Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Feb 18;10(1):e6-e11.
doi: 10.5301/heartint.5000221. eCollection 2015 Jan-Dec.

Differences in coronary artery blood velocities in the setting of normal coronary angiography and normal stress echocardiography

Dawod Sharif  1 , Amal Sharif-Rasslan  2 , Camilia Shahla  3 , Amin Khalil  3 , Uri Rosenschein  1
Affiliations

Differences in coronary artery blood velocities in the setting of normal coronary angiography and normal stress echocardiography

Dawod Sharif et al. Heart Int. .

Abstract

Background: Normal left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery as determined by coronary angiography is considered not only to reflect normal angiography but also to correlate with normal anatomy and function. However, subjects who undergo coronary angiography may differ from those who do not need to have invasive evaluation even if their functional noninvasive studies like dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) were normal.

Aim: LAD velocities in subjects with normal angiography and those with normal DSE are equal.

Methods: A total of 244 subjects were evaluated, 78 had normal LAD by angiography and 166 had normal LAD by DSE. All had Doppler sampling of LAD velocities by transthoracic echocardiography.

Results: Velocity was higher in the angiographic subgroup in diastole 41 ± 23 vs 33 ± 14 cm/s, p = 0.0078; systole 18 ± 14 vs 13 ± 7 cm/s, p = 0.012; diastolic integral 12.6 ± 5 vs 9.8 ± 3.8 cm, p = 3.15 × 10(-5); systolic velocity integral 4 ± 2.9 vs 2.8 ± 1.9, p = 0.0014. While heart rate was similar in both groups, the product of diastolic velocity integral and heart rate of the LAD in the angiographic group was higher: 902 ± 450 vs 656 ± 394, p = 0.00599. Diastolic velocity deceleration time was similar in both groups. Coronary flow reserve defined as diastolic velocity ratio before and immediately after DSE correlated negatively with baseline velocity, r = -0.4.

Conclusions: Mode of defining normality of coronary artery affects velocity behavior of the vessel, reflecting functional differences possibly related to microvasculature and vasodilatation.

Keywords: Coronary angiography; Dobutamine stress echocardiography; Doppler; Left anterior descending coronary artery.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None.

Figures

Fig 1 -
Fig 1 -
Pulsed Doppler of blood velocity through the left anterior descending coronary artery.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Hansson GK. Inflammation, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease. N Engl J Med. 2005;352(16):1685–1695. - PubMed
    1. Geleijnse ML, Fioretti PM, Roelandt JR. Methodology, feasibility, safety and diagnostic accuracy of dobutamine stress echocardiography. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1997;30(3):595–606. - PubMed
    1. Picano E. Stress echocardiography: a historical perspective. Am J Med. 2003;114(2):126–130. - PubMed
    1. Patel MR, Peterson ED, Dai D et al. Low diagnostic yield of elective coronary angiography. N Engl J Med. 2010;362(10):886–895. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Voci P, Testa G, Plaustro G. Imaging of the distal left anterior descending coronary artery by transthoracic color-Doppler echocardiography. Am J Cardiol. 1998;81(12 12A):74G–78G. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources