The Relationship between Myocardial Bridge Type and Proximal Stenosis in Hypertensive Patients

Abstract

Background- Myocardial bridges (MB) are a congenital abnormality in which a part of the coronary artery is tunneled or immersed in the myocardium, most commonly found in the left descending artery (LAD). In the artery proximal to the bridge, there is formation of atherosclerosis. However the tunneled artery and proximal part of the artery is free from atherosclerosis .This study will investigate the relationship between myocardial bridges and proximal stenosis in hypertensive patients.

Methods and materials- 140 myocardial patients were randomly selected form Nanjing’s First Hospital’s database, all aged between 31 and 91 years. 33 were further excluded from the study.  The data of the remaining 107 patients, including the type of bridge, length, depth, BP, cholesterol level and artery involved, was all taken. The Pearson Chi square test was done to compare the relationship between the bridge type and degree of stenosis in the artery proximal to the bridge in hypertensive patients.

Results- Among those 107 patients, 69 (64.4%) had a superficial bridge and 38 (35.5%) had a deep bridge. The p value of the superficial bridge group was (0.993) while that of the deep bridge group was (0.580).

Conclusion- In this study superficial bridges were the most common form of myocardial bridge, and the most common artery involved was the (middle segment of) LAD. There were no signs of atherosclerosis in the MB (or tunneled) arteries or the distal parts. This study found no link between myocardial bridges and proximal stenosis in hypertensive patients.

Keywords:  Myocardial bridge; stenosis; hypertension; superficial bridge; deep bridge; stage 1; stage 2