Abstract
We hypothesized that detection of reverse flow in the distal right coronary artery (d-RCA) and the inferior septal branches (ISB) by transthoracic Doppler echocardiography (TTDE) would be useful for noninvasive diagnosis of the occluded right coronary artery (RCA). Coronary angiography and TTDE were performed on 129 patients. Antegrade flows in the d-RCA and the ISB were defined as directions from the base to the apex in the posterior sulcus and from anterior to inferior in the inferior septum, respectively. Retrograde flow was defined as an inverse direction. Retrograde flow was obtained by TTDE in 14 patients (d-RCA:11, ISB:3) of 18 patients with occluded RCA. The sensitivity and the specificity for identification of occluded RCA were 100% and 97.8%, respectively. Detection of reverse flow in the d-RCA and the ISB using TTDE is a useful method for the noninvasive diagnosis of occluded RCA.
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