14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-140

Angiographic study of the coronary sinus: usefulness for electrophysiologic purposes

MatteoDi Biase, Giovanni Mavilio, Vincenzo Raddato, Riccardo Ieva, Luigi Ziccardi.
Unita Operativa di Cardiologia Universitadegli Studi, Foggia, Italy

The coronary sinus and venous cardiac system are currently utilised for the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias for three main purposes: 1) implantation of leads intended to treat and to prevent atrial tachyarrhythmias (atrial fibrillation and flutter)^1,2; 2) implant of leads in order to pace the left ventricle³; 3) localization and ablation of accessory pathways^4-7.

The development and anatomical distribution of the cardiac venous system are heterogeneous and differ from one subject to another. While extensive anatomical post-mortem studies are very well known, angiographic studies have been performed only recently and in few patients; moreover there is a lack of studies focusing the anatomical configuration of the venous cardiac system in a large series of consecutive patients.

The aim of this study is to obtain information on the distribution of the cardiac venous system in a large series of patients by its indirect view during coronary angiography.