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Multi-slice CT analysis of the length of left main coronary artery: its relation to sex, age, diameter and branching pattern of left main coronary artery, and coronary dominance

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Abstract

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.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Abbreviations

MSCT:

Multi-slice Computed Tomography

RCA:

Right Coronary Artery

LCA:

Left Coronary Artery

LMCA:

Left Main Coronary Artery

LAD:

Left Anterior Descending

LCx:

Left Circumflex

MA:

Median Arteries

3D:

Three Dimensional

IHD:

Ischemic Heart Disease

MPR:

Multi Planar Reformation

MIP:

Maximum Intensity Projection

VR:

Volume Rendering

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Major Scientific and Technological Innovation Projects in Shandong Province, China (2019JZZY020106, 2015ZDXX0201A02).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong Key Laboratory of Digital Human and Clinical Anatomy, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Saeed Javed, Yixuan Mei & Shuwei Liu

  2. Department of Medical Imaging, Shandong Provincial Hospital, Shandong First Medical University, Jinan, 250021, Shandong, China

    Yi Zhang & Cheng Liu

  3. Shandong Provincial Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital Affiliated to Qingdao University, Jinan, 250014, Shandong, China

    Yi Zhang

  4. Department of Medical Imaging, Dongying People’s Hospital, Dongying, 257091, China

    Yixuan Mei

  5. Shandong University School of Medicine, 44#, Wenhua Xi Road, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, China

    Shuwei Liu

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  1. Saeed Javed
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  2. Yixuan Mei
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Contributions

SJ: Project development, study concepts and design, literature research, clinical studies, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, manuscript editing. YM: study concepts and design, clinical studies, data collection, data analysis, statistical analysis. YZ: project development, literature research, clinical studies, manuscript editing. CL: project development, study concepts and design, literature research, manuscript editing. SL: project development, study concepts and design, literature research, manuscript editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shuwei Liu.

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The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Ethical approval

All procedures followed were per the protocol of the work centre and ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. This work was approved by the Ethics Committee of the School of Basic Medicine of Shandong University (No. ECSBMSSDU2018-1–050).

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Javed, S., Mei, Y., Zhang, Y. et al. Multi-slice CT analysis of the length of left main coronary artery: its relation to sex, age, diameter and branching pattern of left main coronary artery, and coronary dominance. Surg Radiol Anat 45, 1009–1019 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-023-03193-w

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