Letter to the Editor: Frequency of coronary artery ectasia among patients undergoing cardiac catheterization

Coronary artery ectasia (CAE) is defined as a 1.5- to 2-fold enlargement of a segment of coronary artery, compared to the diameter of the adjacent (normal) segment of artery. Although the etiology of coronary artery ectasia has not been identified completely, the most frequent cause is coronary atherosclerosis. Its etiology also includes congenital coronary artery anomalies, inflammatory and connective tissue diseases, invasive coronary interventions and rarely, trauma (1). The prevalence of CAE, as determined by angiography, varies between 0.3% and 5.3% (2). In a study performed in India (3), the frequency of CAE was determined to be higher, reporting an incidence of 10%. To our knowledge, there have been no studies performed in Turkey investigating the frequency of CAE. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the frequency of CAE in patients who had undergone coronary angiography in our clinic within last nine years.