Short dual right coronary artery without obstructive coronary artery disease causing obligatory coronary ischemia

Abstract

We present an extremely rare case series of two short dual right coronary arteries (RCAs), causing coronary ischemia without the presence of obstructive coronary artery disease. We describe here the presence of short dual RCA in a 55-year-old nondiabetic, nonhypertensive, and nondyslipidemic male presenting with effort angina New York Heart Association Class II for the last 6 months with strongly positive stress test and another 40-year-old athlete (Central Reserve Police Force Army) without conventional risk factors with effort angina Class II for the last 3 months also with strongly positive stress test. Dual RCA, otherwise known as double RCA, duplicate RCA, or split RCA is extremely rare to encounter in routine clinical practice. The patient had a significant effort angina; in spite of nonatherosclerotic coronaries, small dual RCA terminating much earlier than the intended area of supply was the reason behind coronary ischemia with strongly positive provocative stress test. Short normal dual RCA can be a cause of coronary ischemia although mentioned in the literature; there has been no case report in the world literature till now about short dual nonatherosclerotic RCA causing coronary ischemia. Our case is unique and first to describe short dual RCA terminating much earlier than the intended area of supply can attribute to demand ischemia in the intended area of supply without the presence of obstructive coronary artery disease. We treated the patient with nicorandil to improve myocardial microvascular flow in ischemic region with symptomatic improvement of the patient.