Intravascular ultrasound to assess aortocoronary venous bypass grafts in vivo.

In 20 consecutive patients (18 men and 2 women, aged 42 to 72 years) undergoing repeat coronary angiography because of new onset of angina pectoris 4 months to 11 years (mean 53 months) after aortocoronary saphenous venous bypass operation, the graft to the left anterior descending (n = 12), left circumflex (n = 4) or right coronary (n = 2) artery, or a diagonal branch (n = 2) was studied by both intravascular ultrasound and angiography. Sonographic images were obtained using a 4.8Fr catheter with a crystal mechanically rotated at 900 rpm; quantitative coronary angiograms were recorded in biplane projections.