CORONARY-ARTERY ECTASIA IN EGYPTIAN PATIENTS WITH CORONARY-ARTERY DISEASE

We conducted a retrospective study of 45 Egyptian patients with corona ry artery ectasia who underwent coronary bypass grafting at our instit ution between 1980 and 1995. We examined the anatomic distribution and type of coronary ectasia and its association with coronary risk facto rs in these patients, and evaluated the severity of their coronary art ery disease. We compared these findings with those from a group of 230 Egyptian patients who did not have coronary ectasia. These patients a lso underwent coronary artery bypass grafting between 1980 and 1995 at our institution. Obesity was present in 60% of the patients who had c oronary artery ectasia, compared with 42% of patients who did not have ectasia (P<0.01). Coronary artery ectasia was not related to any coro nary risk factors other than obesity. However; patients who had ectasi a did have a higher rate of triple-vessel coronary artery disease than did patients without ectasia (82% vs 67%, P <0.05). Of the coronary v essels affected by ectasia, 43% were left anterior descending arteries . Diffuse disease was noted in 84% of all ectatic segments. We conclud e that in this patient population, 2 conditions had a positive correla tion with coronary ectasia: obesity and the severity of coronary arter y disease.