Angiography of the sinus node artery and its relationship with sick sinus syndrome

Objective To investigate the morphology and the origin of sinus node artery (SNA) with coronary angiography and to make clear the relationship between sinus node artery related lesion and sick sinus syndrome (SSS). Methods We observed the angiograms of 511 consecutive patients. The number of heart rate and the occurrence of SSS were investigated in 29 patients with SNA related lesions and another 29 patients without any lesion. Meanwhile, we observed another group ( n =34) with SSS and/or sinus bradycardia and to investigate whether there were any SNA related lesions. Statistical evaluations were performed with SPSS10.0. Results We found 561 SNAs in 506 out of the 511 patients. 53 patients (10.17%) had 2 SNAs and one patient had 3 SNAs. There were 275 (49.02%) right, 205 (36.54%) left and 81 (14.44%) posterior SNAs respectively. The differences in average heart rate (71.59±7.45 beats/min vs 73.76±6.67 beats/min) and the numberal of SSS patients (1 vs 0) were insignificant ( P 0.05) between the 2 groups with or without SNA related lesions. There was no difference in the precence of artery stenosis between the 2 groups with or without SSS (out of the 34 SSSs patient, one had 40% stenosis and another 90%; while of the 34 without SSSs, one had 45% stenosis and another 20%, P 0.05). Conclusion The sinus node arteries can generally be found by angiography. There is no significant relationship between coronary artery diseases of sinus node and sick sinus syndrome.