Importance of Resting Coronary Blood Flow as the Main Determinant of Coronary Flow Reserve

In their study, they found that in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease (CAD), a lower coronary flow reserve measured by phase-contrast cine magnetic resonance imaging of the coronary sinus predicted the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events. After successful intervention (percutaneous coronary intervention or coronary artery bypass graft), the microvasculature returns to near baseline levels and resting coronary flow goes down. 1 S. Kato, N. Saito, T. Nakachi, Stress perfusion coronary flow reserve versus cardiac magnetic resonance of known or suspected CAD, J Am Coll Cardiol, Vol. 70, 2017, 869-879 2 K. Lipscomb, K.L. Gould, Mechanism of the effect of coronary artery stenosis on coronary flow in the dog, Am Heart J, Vol. 89, 1975, 60-67 3 H. Schelbert, Anatomy and physiology of coronary blood flow, J Nucl Cardiol, Vol. 17, 2010, 545-554