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Anomalous Origin of Posterior Descending Artery from Left Anterior Descending in the Presence of a Diminutive Right Coronary Artery: Diagnosed by ECG Gated Multi-detector CT

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlc.2011.03.007Get rights and content

Coronary anomalies are easily detected on ECG gated multi-detector CT which has shown to be superior to conventional angiography is demonstrating their origin and course. We present an unusual case of posterior descending artery arising as the continuation of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) in the presence of a diminutive right coronary artery (RCA). The LAD crossed over the apex and continued its course to the base of the heart in the posterior interventricular groove as PDA. The RCA, although normal in origin, was diminutive and terminated on the lateral wall of the right ventricle. This anomaly has been rarely reported and the previous cases have all been conventional angiographic findings.

Introduction

Coronary artery anomalies have an incidence of 0.2–1.2% in general population and are usually discovered incidentally [1]. Anomalous origin of the PDA as from the left anterior descending artery (LAD) is a very rare anomaly [2], [3], [4], [5], [6]. Herein we report a case of posterior descending artery as a continuation of LAD in the presence of a diminutive but normal originating right coronary artery (RCA) discovered during a coronary CT angiogram.

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Case Presentation

A 50 year-old woman presented to our centre to undergo coronary CT angiography for evaluation of chest pain. Her past medical history was insignificant except for hyperlipidaemia. Retrospectively gated cardiac CT was performed on a 64-slice scanner (Somatom Sensation 64; Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany). It was observed that the left main coronary artery was normal sized and gave off the LAD and the left circumflex (LCx) arteries. LCx was a normal and non-dominant artery which

Discussion

Coronary artery anomalies have an incidence of 0.2–1.2% in general population [1] and some of them are haemodynamically significant and are associated with adverse outcome. Coronary CT angiography is gaining a major role in the diagnosis of the coronary artery disease and is considered as a first line in the detection and evaluation of the coronary anomalies [7].

Several unusual variations in the origin of PDA have been reported such as dual PDA, early origin of the PDA from the RCA, perfusion

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