Comparison of radiological and morphologic assessments of myocardial bridges

In this study we aimed to compare the findings of coronary dual-source computed tomography angiography of myocardial bridges with cadaveric dissections. Forty-one isolated, non-damaged fresh sheep hearts were used in this study. Myocardial bridges of the anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery were demonstrated and analyzed by a coronary dual-source computed tomography angiography. Dissections along the left anterior interventricular branch of the left coronary artery were performed by using Zeiss OPMI pico microscope and the length of the bridges were measured. The depths of the myocardial bridges were measured from the stained sections by using the light microscope (Leica DM 6000B). MBs were found in all 41 hearts (100 %) during dissections. Dual-source computed tomography angiography successfully detected 87.8 % (36 of the 41 hearts) of the myocardial bridges measured on left anterior interventricular branch of left coronary artery. The lengths of the myocardial bridges were found 5–40 and 8–50 mm with dissection and dual-source computed tomography angiography, respectively. And the depths were found 0.7–4.5 mm by dual-source computed tomography angiography and 0.745–4.632 mm morphologically. Comparison of the mean values of the lengths showed statistically significantly higher values (22.0 ± 8.5, 17.7 ± 7.7 mm, p = 0.003) for the dissections. Radiological assessment also effectively discriminated complete bridges from incomplete ones. Our study showed that coronary computed tomography angiography is reliable in evaluating the presence and depth of myocardial bridges.