Anatomical variations of coronary circulation and the outcome of acute coronary syndromes: A brief review

Coronary circulation is one site in the human body where many variations are encountered. In addition to well-known risk factors, there are certain anatomical variations that might increase the risk of acute coronary syndromes and determine the outcome of it. Therefore, these variations have a prognostic significance. However, most of the time, a variation in coronary circulation is an incidental finding during an intervention. As such, there is little interest in looking at them from a screening point of view and the majority of the people are unaware of it until an incident strikes. Since screening for them is not routine practice, detection during procedures is helpful in order to make alterations in the routine management for the betterment of the patients. In this review, three such common anatomical variations in coronary circulation; left dominance, variants of left anterior descending artery and myocardial bridging are discussed from an anatomical point of view. All three of them have made individuals more prone to develop deleterious effects following acute coronary syndrome.