The angiographic prevalence of myocardial bridging in man.

Although frequently noted in necropsy series, myocardial bridging has been detected in only 0.5 to 1.6 percent of coronary arteriograms. In this study, the prevalence of angiographically-demonstrable myocardial bridging was determined by a retrospective review of 465 consecutive coronary arteriograms. Bridging was present in 35 arteriograms (7.5 percent) in this series and was located exclusively in the left anterior descending coronary artery. The prevalence of bridging involving this vessel was 9.7 percent in the arteriograms in which the anterior descending artery was adequately visualized. Only 8 of the 35 cases with myocardial bridging had been noted on the initial catheterization reports, a prevalence of 1.7 percent which is similar to that previously reported. The higher frequency of bridging reported here is felt to reflect an increased recognition of this phenomenon detected by a careful review of the arteriograms with the specific purpose of assessing the prevalence of myocardial bridging.