ABSTRACT

Objective: Right coronary artery (RCA) has two anatomical variations detected on coronary angiography, namely C-shaped and sigma shaped RCA. It is known that C shaped coronary artery is associated with more atherosclerotic disease, but there are no studies showing whether there is a difference between these variations in terms of susceptibility to atrial fibrillation. The aim of this study was to determine if there is an increased risk in one of these variations or not.

Material and Methods: A total of 124 participants with normal coronary arteries in coronary angiography were included in our study. Fifty-six had sigma shaped (45%) and 68 had C shaped right coronary artery. P maximum (p max), p minimum (p min), p wave dispersion and p terminal force were calculated from electrocardiography. 24 hour holter monitoring was performed for detecting any arrhythmias.

Results: We determined prolonged p max, p min, p wave dispersion (PD) in sigma shaped right coronary artery in patients and also abnormal p terminal force in 62% of those. There was a statistically significant difference between all electrocardiographic parameters. In C shaped coronary artery group, two of the patients had paroxsymal atrial fibrillation in holter monitoring while 8 had paroxsymal atrial fibrillation in the Sigma shaped group (p= 0.021).

Conclusion: Right coronary artery morphology can be used to determine the risk of atrial fibrillation.

Keywords: RCA shape, atrial fibrilation, sigma RCA