I. Nikodemska et al., PREOPERATIVE AND EARLY POSTOPERATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE INTERNAL THORACIC ARTERY BY TRANSCUTANEOUS DUPLEX ULTRASOUND IN CORONARY-ARTERY BYPASS-GRAFTING, International journal of cardiology, 66(1), 1998, pp. 39-44
We examined internal thoracic artery by transcutaneous duplex ultrasou
nd in 26 patients on four occasions: 4 (+/-2) days before the operatio
n, and 61 (+/-8) minutes, 5 days and 53 (+/-3) days postoperatively. T
here was dominant systolic flow in preoperative scans. After the opera
tion a characteristic biphasic flow with increased peak diastolic velo
city and a decrease in peak systolic/peak diastolic velocity ratio was
detected in all patients. The pulsed Doppler spectrum was used to mea
sure peak velocity, time averaged mean velocity and time averaged maxi
mum velocity. Resting internal thoracic artery flows calculated using
time averaged mean velocity were 30.9+/-5.4 ml/min preoperatively, 40.
7+/-6.3 ml/min immediately after surgery, 41.1+/-8.2 ml/min at 5 days
and 40.1+/-4.9 ml/min at 53 days. There were no significant changes in
resting internal thoracic artery flow between early and late postoper
ative studies. Flow estimates calculated using 0.5xtime averaged maxim
um velocity or time averaged mean velocity showed good agreement. Earl
y postoperative measurements appear to be a good predictor of later ne
sting graft flow. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights re
served.