Investigation and review of myocardial bridges in adult cadaver hearts and angiographs.

Purpose: We aimed to compare the myocardial bridges (MBs) both in the coronary angiography and cadavers.

Methods: Morphological (length, thickness, deepness, the angle between the long axis of vessel and location) and angiographic properties (length, degree of systolic obstruction, frequency) of the MBs were evaluated in 50 adult cadaver hearts and in 1,321 cineangiograms.

Results: Myocardial bridges were observed in 32 of the cadaver hearts (64%) and 100 of cineangiograms (7.57%). It was observed that MBs caused significant coronary stenosis in 34 of 100 individuals leading to the prevalence of significant MB to be (2.5%) in angiography. The MBs that are above the left anterior descending artery in cadaver were classified as superficial MB (77.4%) and deep MB (22.6%). In cineangiogram, the average length of MB (MBL) was determined as 10.32 +/- 4.62 mm.

Conclusion: The presence of MB, MBL and degree of luminal narrowing were not associated with the age and gender. Deepness and thickness were a major determinant of significancy of systolic obstruction by MBs.