Coronary collateral vessels during the early period of acute myocardial infarction: their development]

The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and development of coronary collateral circulations in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We categorized 165 patients with persistent 100% occlusion of the infarct-related artery into 6 groups according to the time from the onset of AMI to angiography. Group I consisted of 55 patients evaluated within 6 hours after the onset of AMI; Group II, 28 patients, between 6 and 12 hours after the onset; Group III, 12 patients, between 12 and 24 hours after the onset; Group IV, 11 patients, between 2 and 13 days after infarction; Group V, 46 patients, between 14 and 44 days after infarction; and Group VI, 13 patients, more than 45 days after infarction. Collateral vessels were applied a numerical score between 0 and 3 according to the degree of opacification of the native vessel distal to the occlusion. In 58%, 79%, 67%, 73%, 89%, and 92%, patients of Groups I to VI had evidence of collateral vessels, respectively. Well-developed collaterals were observed in 24% of Group I compared with 50%, 58%, 55%, 73% and 69% of patients in Groups II to VI, respectively. The mean coronary collateral scores were 0.9 +/- 0.1, 1.4 +/- 0.2, 1.4 +/- 0.3, 1.6 +/- 0.4, 2.0 +/- 0.2 and 2.2 +/- 0.3 for Groups I to VI, respectively. Patients with preinfarction angina had more well-developed collateral circulations than did patients without it, however, there was no significant correlation between the duration of previous angina and extent of coronary collaterals.