GASTROEPIPLOIC ARTERY AS AN IN-SITU CORONARY-ARTERY BYPASS GRAFT - EVALUATION OF MRI AND COLOR DOPPLER ULTRASOUND IN FOLLOW-UP

The right gastroepiploic artery, increasingly used as an in situ coron ary artery bypass graft, has good long-term patency. This study aimed to assess the accuracy and limitations of magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) and colour Doppler ultrasound (US) in postoperative follow-up of such cases. In eight consecutive patients (6 men, 2 women, mean age 57 years), conventional angiography, MRI and US were performed to evalua te graft patency. Colour Doppler US, performed within a week of the op eration, correctly detected flow in three: patent grafts. MRI (1.5 tes la) was performed c. 17 months after surgery, using a spine coil and a coronal two-dimensional Flash-type imaging sequence. At angiography s ix of the eight gastroepiploic artery grafts were patent, and two were occluded. The sensitivity and specificity of MRI were 100%. This accu racy makes MRI a promising method for noninvasive postoperative evalua tion of right gastroepiploic artery graft. patency.