[Cystic lesion in the topography of occluded aortocoronary saphenous vein bypass]. / Zmiana torbielowata w topografii niedroinego, zylnego pomostu aortalno-wiencowego.

Article presents a case of a 66-year old manwith a pericardial cyst, localized in tlhe topography of an occluded aorto-ccoronary saphenous vein graft. The lesion was revealed in computed tomogrnaphy and also evaluated in the subsequently performed magnetic resonance.

[Anomalous right upper pulmonary venous drainage into the superior vena cava with coexistence sinus venosus atrial septal defect (ASD)]. / Nieprawidlowy splyw zyly plucnej górnej prawej do zyly glównej górnej wraz ze wspólistniejacym ubytkiem w przegrodzie miedzyprzedsionkowej o typie zatoki zylnej (ASD).

Article presents a case of a 71-year old woman with pulmonary right upper venous drainage into the superior vena cava and with coexistence sinus venous type Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) which was revealed as interesting finding in multislices computed tomography angiography during estimation of coronary arteries.

[Right corbnary artery aneurysms in patient with suspicion of heart tumor]. / Tetniaki prawej tetnicy wiencowej u pacjenta z podejrzeniem guza serca.

Coronary arteries aneurysms are rare occurring abnormalities, concerning mostly right coronary artery. We present a case of a 60-year old man who underwent magnetic resonance (MRI) due to suspicion of cardiac tumor in the previously performed echocardiography. MRI examination suggested right coronary artery aneurysm. The diagnosis was confirmed in the performed computed tomography (CT) and additionally coronary aneurysm of distal part of right coronary artery was visualized.

Osteoprotegerin, but not osteopontin, as a potential predictor of vascular calcification in normotensive subjects.

We conducted a cross-sectional observation study that included 500 asymptomatic subjects to investigate the relationship between bone metabolism and coronary artery calcification (CAC) in hypertensive conditions. Osteoprotegerin (OPG) and osteopontin (OPN) levels and their associations with hypertension were analyzed to predict CAC in 316 subjects. Multislice computed tomography was used to quantify CAC. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the non-interactive effects of hypertension, CAC severity and biomarker levels, and the logistic regression model was applied to predict the risk of CAC. OPG and OPN concentrations were significantly higher in the hypertensive than the normotensive subjects, at 3.0 (2.3-4.0) pmol l(-1) and 51 (21-136) ng ml(-1) vs. 2.4 (2.0-3.0) pmol l(-1) and 41 (13-63) ng ml(-1), respectively. The OPG level, but not OPN level, increased with age (r = 0.29; P = 0.0001). Zero or minimal CAC (<10 Agatston units (AU)) was observed in 63% of the subjects, mild (11-100 AU) in 17%, moderate (101-400 AU) in 12% and severe (401-1000 AU)-to-extensive (>1000 AU) in 8%. In hypertensive subjects, only glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (ß = -0.67) and gender (ß = 0.52) were significant predictors for CAC (R = 0.68). In normotensive patients, GFR (ß = -0.81), gender (ß = 0.48) and log-transformed OPG levels (ß = 0.15) were significant predictors for CAC. OPG levels were associated with an increased risk of CAC in normotensive subjects only (odds ratio: 3.37; 95% confidence interval (1.63-6.57); P = 0.0002). OPG predicted a premature state of vascular calcification in asymptomatic normotensive individuals, and renal function significantly contributed to this process in both hypertensive and normotensive subjects.

[Use of magnetic resonance in the diagnostics of ischemic heart disease]. / Zastosowanie rezonansu magnetycznego w diagnostyce choroby niedokrwiennej serca.

The role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a diagnostic tool of coronary arteries disease has increased over the last years. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) is a preferable tool in assessment of ventricular mass and function, presence and size of post infarct scaring and anomalies of coronary arteries. CMR becomes also a useful method in evaluation of myocardial viability. Examination with gadolinium dye allows for evaluation of myocardial perfusion and viability. The extent of the post infarct late enhancement zone has an important prognostic value in the recovery of the left ventricle function. Dobutamine, adenosine or dypirydamol stress CMR becomes a promising noninvasive diagnostic modality in detection of coronary artery disease. At present coronary arteries magnetic resonance angiography is being developed as well as CMR spectroscopy.

[Assessment of coronary artery stents in computed tomography: state of the art]. / Ocena stentów tetnic wiencowych w tomografii komputerowej: stan obecny.

Percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) with stent implantation play an important role in the revascularization therapy of coronary artery disease. Introduction of drug eluting stents (DES) diminished problem of restenosis but brought several new major problems like i.e. late stent thrombosis. This makes bare metal stents (BMS) still popular choice for some patients. Coronary-artery-computed-tomography becomes useful device in the noninvasive diagnostics measure of restenosis after PCI. Development of 64-slice computed tomography (CT) enables the noninvasive imaging and evaluation of stents with diameter higher than 3,0 mm and detection of significant restenosis with a low number of false positive results. CT allows with high accuracy to exclude in-stent restenosis among patients with atypical angina, especially those localized in proximal segments of coronary arteries. Future development of CT is needful since evaluation of significant number of examinations remains difficult or impossible due to presence of artifacts.