Myocardial bridge and proximal complicated atherosclerosis of descending branch of left coronary artery as a cause of sudden cardiac death - Case report

Abstract

When coronary artery, which is located subepicardially, submerges into myocardium and then, after a short intramural course, again appears subepicardially, it is called embedded coronary, while a part of myocardium above - a myocardial bridge. Muscular bridges are usually small and have no clinical significance. In the proximal part of coronary artery, preceding a myocardial bridge, there occurs a disturbance of blood course and myocardial perfusion, turbulence, collecting of lipids and mucopolysaccharides, lesion of elastica, which all leads to atheromatous lesions of intima of the arterial proximal part and to the resultant complications of atheroma. Degenerative changes of myocardium and its blood vessels, and in connection with it myocardial vulnerability, could be a consequence of this congenital arterial variation. We report a case of a 40-year-old male, without medical data about previous diseases, who died suddenly and unexpectedly in his apartment. The autopsy and microscopical examination revealed an acute ischemic lesion, myocardial bridge in the middle part of the left coronary artery descending branch and the complicated atherosclerotic plaque proximally of this bridge. © 2003, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved.