Angiographic demonstration of spontaneous diffuse three vessel coronary artery spasm

Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905.

The spontaneous occurrence of diffuse three vessel coronary artery spasm was documented during routine coronary angiography in three patients with a history of variant angina. Quantitative angiographic analysis of 18 arterial segments demonstrated that the mean luminal diameter of 1.47 mm during spasm increased to 2.47 mm after the administration of nitroglycerin (p less than 0.0001). The underlying coronary arteries were normal or near normal. Although multivessel spasm has previously been considered to be uncommon and its spontaneous occurrence during angiography only rarely documented, these cases suggest that it may be more common than previously recognized. In addition to important diagnostic considerations, this phenomenon may have important implications regarding the pathophysiologic role of endothelium in coronary artery spasm.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. Saito, T. Itoh, M. Itoh, Y. Kanaya, T. Suzuki, and K. Hiramori Simultaneous Multivessel Coronary Spasm Causing Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Case Report Angiology, February 1, 2007; 58(1): 112 - 117. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. F. Beltrame, S. Sasayama, and A. Maseri Racial heterogeneity in coronary artery vasomotor reactivity: differences between Japanese and caucasian patients J. Am. Coll. Cardiol., May 1, 1999; 33(6): 1442 - 1452. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]