Left coronary artery contrast transit time.

With our method for selective left coronary arteriography it is possible to determine the time interval between the start of the contrast injection into the artery and the appearance of the contrast in the coronary sinus. This time-interval, coronary contrast transit time (CCTT), has been determined in patients with or without obstructing coronary artery disease. The average CCTT was about four seconds with some individual variations. The CCTT tended to decrease with advancing age. There was no significant difference between the CCTT in patients with normal angiograms compared to the CCTT in patients with coronary stenoses or occlusions. In the latter patients, there was no correlation between the degree of narrowing on the angiograms and the time-measurements. Alternative explanations for these findings are discussed.