The right gastroepiploic artery is being used as a third arterial conduit for coronary artery bypass surgery. Presented here is a case demonstrating successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty of the gastroepiploic artery graft. This successful accomplishment may avoid repeat surgical revascularization in case of failure of the gastroepiploic artery graft, hence may encourage people to use it more often.

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The long-term results of medical therapy and coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) were compared in patients with multivessel disease. All patients were confirmed to have• †75% luminal narrowing of major coronary arteries by coronary arteriogram. When multivessel disease was stratified into

SUMMARYWe assessed the long-term outcome of medical therapy in 453 patients who underwent coronary angiography in the period from September 1973 to February 1984, and who had a significant stenotic lesion (75% or more stenosis) in a single coronary artery. The mean follow-up period was 9.8 years. The 5-and 10-year survival rates were, respectively, 96.0% and 91.3% in these patients, and these survival rates were comparable to the cumulative survival rates in the age-matched healthy male controls determined on the basis of overall death. Cardiac death occurred in 35/453 patients (7.7%) with single-vessel disease (SVD), and non-fatal myocardial infarction occurred in 17 patients (3.8%) during the follow-up period. The incidence of cardiac events, which was defined as cardiac death and nonfatal myocardial infarction, was as low as 1.2% per year. The survival rates were compared in terms of the presence or absence of myocardial infarction, the type of the coronary artery with stenosis, and proximal versus distal location of the stenotic lesion in the left anterior descending artery (LAD). The survival rates were similarly high in both assessed groups, with no significant differences. Patients with SVD treated medically had a good prognosis, except for those patients with decreased left ventricular function (ejection fraction<40%).These factors should be taken into consideration when selecting therapies for patients with SVD. (Jpn Heart J 1996; 37: 165-175)

SUMMARYWe studied the electrophysiologic effects of intravenous adenosine triphosphate disodium (ATP-2Na) on 15 patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardias (PSVTs). One patient had sinus node (SN) reentry and 2 patients had intraatrial (IA) reentry. Five patients had AV nodal reentry and 7 patients had atrioventricular reentrant tachycardias (AVRTs) with accessory pathways (APs). ATP-2Na was injected during ventricular pacing (VP) in patients with AVRTs with APs. A bolus injection of ATP-2Na terminated all the PSVTs within 40 sec except in one case of IA reentry. The sites of block at the termination were the atrium in SN reentry and IA reentry, between A and H (AH) block or between H and A (HA) block in AV nodal reentry and AH block in all the AVRTs with APs. ATP-2Na during VP in patients with AVRTs with APs produced the changes of atrial activation sequences in 3 patients, induction of PSVT in 2 patients and a Mobitz type II VA block in 2 patients. The former two phenomena suggested a retrograde AV nodal block and raised the possibility of a simple test for retrograde atrial fusion during VP in patients with WPW syndrome. Chest discomfort of short duration was most commonly noted after ATP-2Na. Inosine pretreatment potentiated the effects of ATP-2Na. This combination may further alleviate the side effects of ATP-2Na, while preserving the effective action of ATP-2Na for rapid termination of PSVTs. Additional Indexing Words: Electrophysiologic effectsParoxysmal supraventricular tachycardias Ventricular pacing ATP-2Na potentiation by inosine