Tag Archives: coronary physiology

Introduction Dr Pitt O Lim The heart receives 5% or 250 ml/min of cardiac output and extracts 75% of oxygen delivered, even under basal conditions, compared with less than 5% for the skeletal muscle, therefore, when oxygen requirement rises, the only way to match this is for coronary flow to increase.1 This review concerns new techniques for estimating coronary flow, against a brief historical backdrop and a concise overview of coronary haemodynamics relevant to coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD), an exhaustive rendition of which is published elsewhere.2 Angina and coronary artery disease Angina pectoris, which in Latin literally means

Introduction – why do we need coronary physiology? It is increasingly appreciated that only coronary stenoses severe enough to cause myocardial ischaemia should undergo revascularisation. Reliable assessment of stenosis severity is, therefore, vital. For many years, invasive coronary angiography was considered to be the gold-standard test for the identification of flow-limiting coronary artery disease. This was largely due to the ‘oculo-stenotic reflex’ – a powerful stimulus that leads operators to believe that ischaemia must be present based on the severity of the coronary stenosis from visual assessment alone. However, identifying i