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Tex Heart Inst J. 2008; 35(4): 477–479.
PMCID: PMC2607101
Split Right Coronary Artery Its Definition and Its Territory
Fadi J. Sawaya, MD, Jaber I. Sawaya, MD, and Paolo Angelini, MD
Department of Cardiology, American University of Beirut–Medical Center (Drs. F. Sawaya and J. Sawaya), Beirut, Lebanon; and Department of Cardiology (Dr. Angelini), Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030
Abstract
We report here, for perhaps the 1st time in the English-language literature, the extent of the territory fed by the anterior bifurcation of the (anomalous) split right coronary artery (RCA). A 64-year-old man presented with an occlusion of the anterior bifurcation of a split RCA—which resulted in an infarct that involved both the inferoseptal left ventricular wall and the anterior right ventricular free wall. Split RCA is the same anomaly as the improperly named “double right coronary artery.” In reality, there are not 2 RCAs, but only split portions of the posterior descending branch of the RCA, with 2 separate proximal courses.
Key words: Coronary vessel anomalies/diagnosis, myocardial infarction/diagnosis/physiopathology