Percutaneous coronary angioplasty in a patient with anomalous single coronary artery arising from the right sinus of Valsalva

Abstract

We describe a 74-year-old female patient with unstable angina. The coronary angiogram showed the presence of a single coronary artery arising from the right sinus of Valsalva, which is a very uncommon congenital anomaly, with subocclusive atherosclerotic plaques at the proximal and distal right coronary artery. The stenoses were treated through percutaneous coronary angioplasty and insertion of taxol-eluting stents, with complete relief of symptoms and without evidence of myocardial ischemia at 6-months follow up. Single coronary artery is a rare congenital coronary anomaly, which may be asymptomatic and occasionally detected in patients with myocardial ischemia due to atherosclerotic coronary artery disease. In these cases, percutaneous coronary angioplasty with stent insertion may be a successful therapeutic option; however, accurate morphologic identification of anomalous arteries is mandatory before planning these interventions, in order to recognize other possible mechanisms of myocardial ischemia (e.g. vascular compression) and to choose the most appropriate type of pharmacological, percutaneous or surgical intervention.