Hair pin bends of epicardial coronary arteries - a unique feature in multiple myocardial bridges

Abstract

Myocardial bridge(MB) is an anatomical variant. Sometimes MB can cause compression over the coronary arteries and causes ischemic heart diseases.MB associated with bends of coronary arteries double the risk of coronary artery disease. So the present study aimed to find out the incidence of bends of the coronary artery along with the myocardial bridging. 100 heart specimens were obtained from routine dissection conducted for undergradu­ate students in the department of Anatomy IMS & SUM Hospital Bhubaneswar. After the simple dissecting procedure, epicardial coronary arteries, their branches and myocardial bridges and hairpin bends of coronary arteries were observed. Myocardial bridges present 41 (41%) over Left anterior descending artery(LAD) only.Among 41 hearts single myocardial bridge present in 37((90.25%) hearts, double myocardial bridge were present in 3((7.31%) hearts and triple myocardial bridges present in only one heart(2.44%). Hairpin bends of the coronary artery were present in double and triple myocardial bridged hearts only. No hairpin bends of the coronary artery was observed in the single myocardial bridge. Hair pin bends of the coronary arteries are the unique features of the myocardial bridges in multiple myocardial bridges, i.e. double and triple myocardial bridges. However, hairpin bends of coronary arteries were absent in single myocardial bridged hearts.