Case Report

2 Case of Coronary Artery-to-Left Ventricular Fistulae

Sue Yeun Shin, Si Hoon Park, Hee Jung Oh
Author Information & Copyright
Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Korea.

Copyright ⓒ 2003. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Mar 31, 2003

Abstract

Coronary artery-to-left ventricular fistula is an unusual anomaly in adult and consists of a communication between one of coronary arteries and cardiac chambers. Most patients with coronary artery to ventricular fistulae are usually asymptomatic, but some can suffer from anginal pain. which can be caused myocardial ischemia due to coronary steal mechanism. In absence of concomitant atherosclerotic coronary artery disease or left ventricular hypertrophy causing an oxygen demand-supply imbalance, coronary steal appears to be a major importance in pathogenesis of myocardial ischemia in cases with generalized arterial systemic fistulae. We experienced 2 incidently found cases of coronary artery-to-left ventricular fistulae. We report these cases with a review of literature.

Keywords: Coronary artery-to-left ventricular shunts; Coronary steal phenomenon; Myocardial ischemia