Review of myocardial bridge and its clinical significance

Myocardial bridge is a congenital anomaly of the coronary artery and appears on an angiogram as a systolic narrowing. Major coronary veins are rarely covered by myocardial bridges. The functional significance of the coronary bridge remains controversial. We reviewed the articles on this topic in recent years.DefinitionMyocardial bridging describes an angiographic entity,which is any degree of systolic narrowing of a coronary artery observed in at least one angiographic projection1. The main coronary arteries and the proximal segments of their major branches lie free on the epicardial surface of the heart. However, in some instances these vessels may penetrate into the muscle being surrounded by the myocardium, with the overlying muscle referred to as a 'bridge'. Myocardial bridging appears to be a congenital anomaly, due to failure of exteriorization of the primitive coronary intratrabecular arterial network2.

Myocardial bridge is a congenital anomaly of the coronary artery and appears on an angiogram as a systolic narrowing. Major coronary veins are rarely covered by myocardial bridges. The functional significance of the coronary bridge remains controversial. We reviewed the articles on this topic in recent years.