Relationship between Coronary Artery Tortuosity and Left Ventricular Diastolic Functions

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the relationship between coronary tortuosity and left ventricular relaxation disorder using conventional and new diastolic function parameters evaluated with echocardiography.
Methods: A total of 131 patients who underwent coronary angiography for suspected coronary artery disease were included in the study. We compared diastolic function parameters obtained in echocardiography of the patients with coronary artery tortuosity (CAT) and normal coronary arteries.
Results: There was no correlation between conventionally measured diastolic functions and coronary tortuosity. However, we obtained significant findings with new diastolic function parameters such as myocardial performance index (MPI), early mitral inflow velocity, and mitral annular early diastolic velocity (E/e΄). Especially, in patients who had moderate or severe coronary tortuosity, there was a significant increase in anterior and septal wall MPI. The E/e΄ ratio was found to be significantly higher in patients with moderate–severe coronary tortuosity.
Discussion and Conclusion: CAT is common in invasive cardiology. Tissue Doppler echocardiography may be useful in determining diastolic dysfunction in these patients.

Keywords: Cardiology; Coronary circulation; Echocardiography; Diastolic heart failure; Health care