Lumen Diameter of Normal Human Coronary Arteries Influence of Age, Sex, Anatomic Variation, and Left

Background. Precise knowledge of the expected "normal " lumen diameter at a given coronary anatomic location is a first step toward developing a quantitative estimate of coronary disease severity that could be more useful than the traditional "'percent stenosis." Methods and Resuls. Eighty-three arteriograms were carefuly selected from among 9,160 consecutive studies for their smooth lumen borders indicating freedom from atherosclerotic disease. Of these, 60 men and 10 women had no abnormalities of cardiac function, seven men had idiopathic dilated cardiomyop-athy, and six men had left ventricular hypertrophy associated with significant aortic stenosis. Lumen diameter was measured at 96 points in 32 defined coronary segments or major branches. Measurements were scaled to the catheter, corrected for imaging distortion, and had a mean repeat measurement error of 0.12 mm. When sex, anatomic dominance, and branch length were accounted for, normal lumen diameter at each of the standard anatomic points could usually be specified with a population variance of ±O.6 mm or less (SD) and coefficient ofvariation of <0.25 (SD/mean). For example, the left main artery measured 4.5±0.5 mm, the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) 3.7+0.4 mm, and the distal LAD 1.9+0.4 mm. For the LAD, lumen diameter was not affected by anatomic dominance (right versus left), but for the right coronary artery, proximal diameter varied between 3.9±0.6 and 2.8±0.5 m