Comparing Serum Level of Vitamin D3 in Patients With Isolated Coronary Artery Ectasia and Normal Coronary Artery Individuals.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is identified as dilation of one or more segments of coronary arteries that reaches 1.5 times or more, compared with near segments that are normal. Several etiologies like atherosclerosis, autoimmune diseases and congenital anomalies have been proposed for this condition. Vitamin D deficiency activates the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which affects the cardiovascular system. For these reasons, we investigated the serum level of vitamin D in patients with CAE compared with individuals with normal coronary arteries. METHODS: The study group included 30 patients (20 males and 10 females, mean age: 57 ± 9 years) with isolated CAE without any stenotic lesions, and the control group consisted of 60 age/gender matched subjects who had normal coronary angiograms (CAG) (40 males and 20 females, mean age: 57 ± 8 years). All participants underwent CAG at Tehran Heart Center between December 2015 and March 2016. Along with routine lab tests, vitamin D, serum albumin, calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase levels were analyzed and the unadjusted and adjusted effects of vitamin D on CAE were evaluated using logistic regression model. RESULTS: The median vitamin D level of the patients with CAE was lower than that of the control group (6.5 [3.0, 18.8] ng/mL vs. 17.7 [8.9, 27.1] ng/mL; P = 0.002). The logistic regression model showed that vitamin D deficiency was a predictor for the presence of CEA (P = 0.013). After adjustment for confounding variables, this association remained significant (P = 0.025). CONCLUSION: An association between CAE and vitamin D deficiency was found in our study.

Evaluation of longitudinal left ventricular function in patients with coronary artery ectasia and vitamin D deficiency by 2D speckle tracking echocardiography.

OBJECTIVES: Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is defined as the dilation of at least one segment of the coronary arteries that reaches at least 1.5 times the size of a normal neighboring segment. It has been shown that left ventricular (LV) diastolic function is impaired in patients with CAE. Also, it has been shown that LV function is impaired in vitamin D-deficient subjects compared with vitamin D-sufficient subjects and vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in CAE patients. We hypothesized that LV function is impaired in patients with CAE so we evaluated longitudinal LV myocardial function by 2D speckle tracking echocardiography (2DSTE) in patients with CAE and vitamin D deficiency without significant coronary artery stenosis and compared the results with those of subjects with vitamin D deficiency and near-normal coronary arteries. METHODS: Our study population comprised 21 consecutive patients with CAE and without significant coronary artery stenosis (<50%) and 31 control subjects with near-normal coronary arteries. All subjects had vitamin D deficiency. RESULTS: All 2DSTE-derived indices of longitudinal LV function, comprised of the absolute values of systolic strain (14.0±2.7% vs 15.4±2.3%, P=.039), systolic strain rate (1.2±0.2/s vs 1.3±0.2/s, P=.015), early diastolic strain rate (1.1±0.3/s vs 1.3±0.3 s-1 , P=.030), and late diastolic strain rate (0.8±0.2/s vs 1±0.2/s, P=.005), were reduced in the patients with CAE and vitamin D deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: The systolic and diastolic functions of the LV in the patients with CAE and vitamin D deficiency were impaired as evaluated by 2DSTE.

Evaluation of left atrial function via two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography in patients with coronary artery ectasia.

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is a segmental dilation of an epicardial coronary artery. Our aim was to evaluate the left atrial (LA) function in patients with CAE. METHODS: Twenty-seven consecutive patients with CAE and 33 subjects without significant coronary artery disease were included in our study. LA function was evaluated with two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (2DSTE). RESULTS: The systolic, early diastolic and late diastolic strains and strain rates were not statistically significantly different between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that LA function may not be affected by CAE when assessed with 2DSTE. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:231-237, 2017.