HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Wahba, A. Articles by Birnbaum, D. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Wahba, A. Articles by Birnbaum, D. E.

European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Vol 8, 236-239, Copyright © 1994 by European Association for Cardio-thoracic Surgery

ARTICLES

The morphology of the inferior epigastric artery has implications on its use as a conduit for myocardial revascularization

A Wahba, K Offerdal, S von Sommoggy and DE Birnbaum
Department of Cardiac, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Klinikum Regensburg, University of Regensburg, Germany.

The inferior epigastric artery (IEA) is a new arterial graft for myocardial revascularization. We examined the inferior epigastric artery, the internal thoracic artery (ITA) and representative sections of the coronary arteries in 45 postmortem examinations, for microscopic signs of atherosclerosis. In addition, a morphometric evaluation of the intima and media of both conduits was performed. The intima of the ITA is significantly thicker, but atherosclerosis is absent. There are fewer fenestrations/mm in the internal elastic lamina (IEL) (4.00 +/- 1.60 versus 4.62 +/- 1.46) of the IEA and the combined thickness of media and intima is lower (0.20 +/- 0.04 mm versus 0.30 +/- 0.06 mm). However, 24% of IEAs showed medial calcification of variable degrees. We conclude that the IEA should not be used routinely for myocardial revascularization until the long-term patency of this graft has been explored.