Author(s)

Shilpa Suresh¹, S. R. Kalpana², H. V. Jayanth Kumar¹, Sumithra Selvam³, Kumsi Sreedhar¹

¹Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Bengaluru, India.
²Department of Pathology, Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Bengaluru, India.
³Department of Biostatistics, St. Johns Research Institute, Bengaluru, India.

Background: The left internal mammary artery (IMA) is widely used as a conduit for coronary revascularization. The incidence of atherosclerosis is known to be lower in the IMA than in the coronary artery. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of the use of the distal section of the IMA as an anastomotic site for bypass grafting and morphometric studies of IMA in patients with proven coronary artery disease and their associated risk factors. Methods: Patients who underwent Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) from June 2010 to November 2012 were chosen in this retrospective study and the discarded distal segments of the internal mammary artery were analyzed. The potential risk factors for atherosclerosis considered were age, sex, diabetes mellitus, history of cigarette smoking, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. The samples were analyzed for the degree of intimal thickening and atherosclerosis by calculating the percentage of Luminal Narrowing, Intimal Thickness Index (ITI) and Intima-to-Media Ratio (IMR). Results: There were seven cases of intimal hyperplasia and two cases of focal medial and intimal hyperplasia with fatty streak and no cases of atherosclerosis and medial calcification. ITI was higher in males when compared to females. There was a strong relationship between IMR and smokers when compared to nonsmokers. Conclusion: In our study, when ITI was used as the dependent variable, diabetes was the most important factor. When IMR was used, the strongest predictor was hypercholesterolemia. There was a strong relationship between IMR and smokers when compared to nonsmokers.

Atherosclerosis, Calcification, Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, Intimal Hyperplasia

Suresh, S. , Kalpana, S. , Kumar, H. , Selvam, S. and Sreedhar, K. (2020) Histopathology and Morphometric Analysis of the Internal Mammary Artery to Study the Incidence of Atherosclerosis and Its Associated Risk Factors. World Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, 10, 67-74. doi: 10.4236/wjcs.2020.106009.