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Ann Thorac Surg 1999;67:1211
© 1999 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Correspondence

Reply

^a Servicio de Cirugía Cardiaca, Hospital General Universitario de Alicante, C/Maestro Alonso 109, E-03010, Alicante, Spain

e-mail: jmeseguer{at}coma.es

To the Editor

We congratulate Dr Moro and associates for the excellent early results that they have obtained in four cases using the patch angioplasty and the midterm outcome of all three survivors being free from angina.

We agree with Dr Dion regarding reserving the use of autologous pericardium patch only in cases of osteal stenosis [1, 2].

Although the utility of noninvasive methods used for assessment of graft patency in the follow-up is beyond the scope of this discussion, we think that an imaging technique is essential to evaluate the morphology and patency of the angioplasty. Nowadays the most accurate and available noninvasive imaging technique to evaluate the surgical results of left main coronary artery angioplasty is magnetic resonance imaging with spin-echo and gradient-echo techniques as demonstrated by Briffa and colleagues [3].

References

1. Dion R., Elias B., El Khoury G., Noirhomme P., Verheist R., Hanet C. Surgical angioplasty of the left main coronary artrey. Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 1997;11:857-864.[Abstract]
2. Meseguer J., Hurlé A., Fernández-Latorre F., Alonso S., Llamas P., Casillas J.A. Left main coronary artery patch angioplasty: midterm experience and follow-up with spiral computed tomography. Ann Thorac Surg 1998;65:1594-1598.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
3. Briffa N., Clarke S., Kugan G., Coulden R., Wallwork J., Nashef S. Surgical angioplasty of the left main coronary artery: follow-up with magnetic resonance imaging. Ann Thorac Surg 1996;62:550-552.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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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 Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Personal Folders Download to citation manager Author home page(s): Juan Meseguer Permission Requests Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Meseguer, J. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Meseguer, J. Related Collections Related Article