Giant saccular aneurysm of coronary arteriovenous fistula to the main pulmonary artery: intraoperative assessment by using fluorescent imaging.

Coronary arteriovenous fistulas (CAF) and coronary artery aneurysms (CAA) are uncommon, but their detection has recently increased. In this case we succeeded in identifying the residual shunt flow by using an intraoperative fluorescence imaging technique with indocyanine green after surgical treatment. The photodynamic eye imaging system is based on fluorescence of indocyanine green. This is the first report to identify residual shunt flow with such a giant coronary aneurysm by using fluorescence imaging, and the result indicates that this technique is useful for acceptance as one of the examinations to evaluate CAAs. Furthermore, it may be useful for the detection of shunt cases, such as congenital heart disease.

Successful nitinol stent implantation in a large coronary aneurysm: post-interventional patency assessment by magnetic resonance imaging.

Nitinol stents are thought to exhibit reduced occurrence of artifacts and may be suitable for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) evaluation of stent localization and in-stent patency even in coronary-sized stent grafts. A 54-year-old male patient presented with a large coronary post-stenotic aneurysm of the right coronary artery (RCA) beside significant stenoses of the left circumflex coronary artery (LCX) and the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) with aneurysm formation. After implantation of stent grafts to the LAD and LCX, two polymermembrane-covered nitinol stent grafts were placed into the RCA. A control MR examination 7 days following the RCA intervention showed successful occlusion of the former aneurysm, no post-interventional endoleak, and bright signal within the stent indicating stent patency. Thus, coronary MRI after nitinol stent implantation in coronary aneurysms is feasible for post-interventional early imaging control at least as far as the exclusion of possible endoleaks is concerned.

Preoperative MRA assessment of the coronary arteries in an ascending aortic aneurysm.

We present a patient with an aneurysm that included both the aortic root and the ascending aorta. Visualization of the coronary arteries by x-ray angiography was not technically feasible. Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) was thus performed and allowed an accurate evaluation of the involvement of the coronary arteries in the aneurysm and the patency of the proximal coronaries, as well as visualization of the aneurysm itself.