Cross-sectional area measurement of the coronary arteries using CT angiography at the level of the bifurcation: is there a relationship?

Abstract

PURPOSE Our aim was to determine whether there is a correlation between cross-sectional areas of the left main coronary artery (LMCA), left anterior descending artery (LAD), and circumflex artery (CX) in nor-mal cases using coronary CT angiography. METHODExaminations of 180 patients (119 men and 61 women) were selected among 2248 consecutive coro-nary CT angiography studies. Cross-sectional areas of LMCA, LAD, and CX were measured at the level of bifurcation. Correlation between age, height, and body mass index and coronary artery cross-sec-tional areas was investigated and possibility of formulating a correlation between the cross-sectional areas of LMCA, LAD, and CX was explored. RESULTSMean cross-sectional areas of LMCA, LAD, and CX were found as 17.4±3.9 mm2, 12.5±3.1 mm2, and 10.5±3.0 mm2, respectively. While cross-sectional areas of LMCA and LAD were significantly larger in men, no significant difference was found between the sectional areas of CX in men and women. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to elucidate the relationship between the cross-sectional areas of LMCA LAD, and CX. Our analysis showed that the relationship between LMCA, LAD, and CX cross-sectional areas can be formulated as follows: LMCA=3.870 + 0.718×LAD + 0.434×CX.CONCLUSIONThere is a correlation between the cross-sectional areas of LMCA, LAD, and CX at the level of bifurca-tion, and this correlation can be expressed with a formula.