Efficacy of coronary artery bypass surgery with gastroepiploic artery. Assessment with thallium 201 myocardial scintigraphy.

This study describes the efficacy of the right gastroepiploic artery (GEA) as graft material for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) as assessed by exercise thallium 201 myocardial scintigraphy in eight patients (age, 59.4 +/- 9.35 years [mean +/- SD]) who underwent CABG with the GEA graft in the past 2 years. Planar and single-photon-emission computed tomographic (SPECT) images were obtained during and 3 hours after exercise. Planar images were evaluated quantitatively with the percentile-washout method, and SPECT images were evaluated qualitatively with a bull's-eye, polar-coordinate map. All patients had triple-vessel disease, and in situ GEAs were anastomosed to the right coronary artery in seven patients and to the left anterior descending coronary artery in one. The internal mammary artery graft was concomitantly used in all patients. The mean number of grafts per patient was 3.0 (range, 2-4). Preoperative exercise testing could not be performed in two patients because of emergency operation. By qualitative assessment with the polar-coordinate map, four patients showed improvement, one did not show any change, and one became worse due to perioperative myocardial infarction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)