USE OF COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING IN ASSESSMENT OF PREOPERATIVE AND POSTOPERATIVE FLOW CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERNAL THORACIC ARTERY IN MYOCARDIALREVASCULARIZATION
F. Bilgen et al., USE OF COLOR DOPPLER IMAGING IN ASSESSMENT OF PREOPERATIVE AND POSTOPERATIVE FLOW CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERNAL THORACIC ARTERY IN MYOCARDIALREVASCULARIZATION, Angiology, 47(6), 1996, pp. 589-594
Between January 1993 and February 1993, the left internal thoracic art
eries of 40 consecutive patients scheduled for aortocoronary bypass op
eration were examined by transthoracic B-mode imaging. Perioperative m
easurements correlated well with preoperative noninvasive measurements
(r = 0.914). In the postoperative period, B-mode images could not be
obtained in 17 (44.7%) of 38 patients. Adequate Doppler spectra of the
internal thoracic artery were obtained in all patients preoperatively
and in 36 (94.7%) of 38 patients postoperatively. Preoperatively a tr
iphasic wave form was obtained with a large systolic peak followed by
small reversed and diastolic components in all patients. Postoperative
ly this triphasic wave form had been converted into a combined systoli
c-diastolic wave form. In all patients peak systolic velocity of the i
nternal thoracic artery decreased (96.4 +/- 15.3 vs 64.2 +/- 18.9 cm/s
ec., P < 0.05), and peak diastolic velocity increased (21.7 +/- 8.8 vs
28.3 +/- 11.2 cm/sec., P < 0.05) significantly in the postoperative p
eriod as compared with the preoperative values. A slight decrease in p
eak systolic and diastolic velocities was detected at twelve months po
stoperatively. This study indicates that transthoracic B-mode imaging
and Doppler spectrum analysis are reliable techniques in the preoperat
ive and postoperative assessment of the internal thoracic artery in my
ocardial revascularization.