[Evaluation of patency of internal mammary artery grafts: a comparison of two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography with coronary angiography].

: To examine the clinical feasibility of color flow mapping Doppler echocardiography (CFM) in diagnosing the patency of internal mammary artery (IMA) grafts, 41 patients who had had coronary bypass surgery were examined by both CFM and coronary angiography (CAG) within one week of the CFM examination. Coronary bypass surgery was performed one to eight months prior to this study, and the average number of bypass grafts was 2.7 +/- 0.7. The patency of the IMA grafts was confirmed in all except one patient by CAG; whereas, the flow in the IMA grafts was clearly visualized in all 22 patients by CFM from the left parasternal echo window. Peak velocities of the IMA graft flow in the 22 patients were 31.7 +/- 12.0 (19-49) cm/sec in diastole and 14.9 +/- 8.5 (5-36) cm/sec in systole. No false positive diagnosis was made in the CFM examination. The sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value of CFM in the diagnosis of IMA graft patency were 55%, 100%, 5.3% and 100% respectively. In conclusion, although the sensitivity of color Doppler still remains relatively low, its specificity in the diagnosis of IMA graft patency is 100%. Thus, color Doppler is expected to be valuable for long-term follow-up of IMA graft patencies.