325
Left main coronary artery compression due to dilatation of the
main pulmonary artery in patients with pulmonary
hypertension: treatment and long-term follow-up
Compresión del tronco de la arteria coronaria izquierda por la dilatación de la arteria
pulmonar principal en pacientes con hipertensión pulmonar: tratamiento y seguimiento a
largo plazo
Juan M. Farina*, Guillermina Sorasio, Víctor Darú, and Adrián J. Lescano
Department of Cardiology, Red de Clínicas de Santa Clara. Buenos Aires, Argentina
SCIENTIFIC LETTER
Correspondence:
*Juan M. Farina
E-mail: juan.farina@gmail.com
Available online: 04-12-2020
Arch Cardiol Mex (Eng). 2020;90(3):325-328
www.archivoscardiologia.com
Date of reception: 13-08-2019
Date of acceptance: 20-01-2020
DOI: 10.24875/ACME.M20000139
A 56-year-old female patient who had been diag-
nosed with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension 3 years
before the consultation presented to the emergency
department referring a 2-week history of dyspnea and
angina in functional Class III. Signs of right heart failure
were confirmed (lower limb edema, mild bilateral pleural
effusion, and positive hepatojugular reflux) at admis-
sion, as well as an increased intensity of second cardi-
ac sound, and a pulmonary focus ejection murmur.
Baseline diagnostic workup included an electrocardio-
gram that showed right ventricular hypertrophy and
complete right bundle branch block. Doppler echocar-
diogram revealed right chambers dilation with a mild
depression in right ventricular systolic function and a
moderate tricuspid regurgitation with a peak velocity of
4.52 m/s, the estimated pulmonary artery systolic pres-
sure was 90 mmHg (based on an 82 mmHg gradient
between right ventricle and atrium added to a right
atrium pressure of 8 mmHg determined by inferior vena
cava diameter and collapse). In addition, this method
allowed the suspicion of the main coronary artery ex-
trinsic compression as the cause of angina due to a
severe dilation of the main pulmonary artery (55 mm),
and of its main branches, was found
1
. Because of this
suspicion, a chest computed tomography (CT)
angiography was performed; it confirmed the severe
dilation of the pulmonary artery (54 mm in this case by
this method) and showed an abnormal trajectory of the
left main coronary artery, with critical reduction of its
lumen, decreased distance between it and the pulmo-
nary artery, and a very narrow angle with the left sinus
of Valsalva (Fig. 1A)
2
. After assuming extrinsic com-
pression by the pulmonary artery, a coronary angiogra-
phy was performed for initially diagnostic and potentially
therapeutic purposes. It revealed a proximal severe
obstruction of the left main coronary artery, with TIMI
(thrombolysis in myocardial infarction) 2 flow, and an
almost parallel path to the left sinus of Valsalva due to
the dislocation generated by the compression (Fig. 1B).
For a better definition of the lesion intravascular, ultra-
sound was used; it showed an absence of atheroma-
tous plaques and confirmed the severe reduction of
proximal left main coronary artery diameter and the
extrinsic nature of the obstruction (Fig. 1C)
3
.
A 4.5 × 20 mm drug-eluting stent was placed in the left
main coronary artery, without complications. The pa-
tient evolved favorably, and annual follow-up with chest
CT angiography was carried out, with no evidence of
complications 3 years after the stent placement.
2604-7063 / © 2020 Instituto Nacional de Cardiología Ignacio Chávez. Published by Permanyer. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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