[Comparison of angiographic aspects and anatomical lesions of coronary arteries].

The coronary angiograms of 32 patients were compared with the anatomical lesions found during the postmortem examinations which were done early after the X-ray examination. The angiographic and anatomical data coincided in 81.6 per cent of all the coronary artery segments studied. The best coincidence was observed for the right coronary artery and the less accurate for the left coronary trunk (nevertheless, with 77 per cent good correlations). On the whole, the observer tends to underestimate the severity of the stenoses involving the large trunks (left coronary trunk and anterior descending artery) and to overestimate the involvement of the distal segments, especially if their size is small. Habitually, the errors noted are insufficient to modify the therapeutic attitude. Rarely, on the anterior descending artery, they have led to the performance of an uneccessary aorta-to-coronary by-pass (1 case) or to an unjustified conservative attitude (2 cases). Equally, over-estimation of a distal bed to a left circumflex artery was responsible for an abusive contra-indication (1 case). Thus, if on the whole coronary angiography is a fiable examination, it is necessary to resort to new incidences to improve its results.