Purpose: The objective of this research was to analyze and correlate the length of the left main coronary artery (LMCA) with significant clinical parameters using multi-slice CT (MSCT).
Materials and methods: 1500 patients (851 males and 649 females; mean age 57.38 ± 11.03 [SD]; age range: 5-85 years) who underwent MSCT scans from September 2020 to March 2022 were retrospectively included. The data were applied to generate three-dimensional (3D) simulations of a coronary tree using the syngo.via post-processing workstation. The reconstructed images were then interpreted, and the collected data were subjected to statistical analysis.
Results: The results showed 1206 (80.4%) cases with medium LMCA, 133 (8.9%) with long LMCA, and 161 (10.7%) with short LMCA. The average diameter of LMCA at its midpoint was 4.69 ± 0.74 mm. The most frequent type of division of LMCA was bifurcation in 1076 (71.7%) cases; in 424 (28.3%) cases, the LMCA was divided into three or more branches. The dominance was right in 1339 (89.3%), left in 78 (5.2%), and co-dominant in 83 (5.5%) cases. There was a positive correlation between the length and branching patterns of LMCA, χ2 = 113.993, P = 0.000 (< 0.05). Other variables like age, sex, diameter of LMCA, and coronary dominance did not show any significant correlation.
Conclusion: This study has demonstrated a significant association between the length and the branching pattern of LMCA, which may be essential in diagnosing and treating coronary artery patients.
Keywords: Branching patterns of left main coronary artery; Coronary arteries; Coronary artery dominance; Left main coronary artery.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.