VISUALIZATION OF GENERALIZED CORONARY-ART ERY FISTULAS BY COLOR-CODEDDOPPLER-ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY

A 60-year-old woman was referred because of retrosternal pain. Transth oracic color-coded Doppler echocardiography showed, in the apical regi on of the left ventricle, multiple connections between the epicardium and the left ventricula chamber. The finding was concordant with a gen eralized arteriosystemic coronary artery fistula. Coronarography after wards with injection of dye into left and right coronary arteries resu lted in an intense homogenous opacification of the ventricle through m ultiple small coronary artery fistulas. This case report represents th e first description of color-coded Doppler echocardiography in the dia gnosis of generalized arteriosystemic coronary artery fistulas.