Abstract
With the increasing number of death from the occlusive disease of the coronary artery during recent years, any reliable diagnostic method and positive remedy for the disease have been more eagerly pursued by many investigators. However, many curative means for the disease have their limits in respect of their indications and effects, and it may safely be said that we have not a decisive one as yet. For a correct diagnosis of the region and extent of a lesion, various kinds of coronary arteriography are thought to be indispensable. The author as well as his associates has studied and satisfactorily practiced a new method for coronary arteriography ; "Coronary Arteriography Using Successive Diastolic Injections". In this method contrast medium injected into the aortic root during ventricular diastole is minimally diluted with blood in the aortic root and reaches the coronary artery tree at a higher concentration, with the relative lack of blood flow in the root and with the maximum rate of coronary artery blood flow. On the basis of this principle, the author has developed a new method for administrating the medicines for the coronary artery disease, styling this method "Selective Coronary Artery Infusion Technique (SCAIT)". If the efficacy of this technique is confirmed, this technique attains its important significance for the treatment of the surgically incurable coronary heart disease with severe cardiac failure and for the pre- and post-operative treatment of coronary embolism or myocardial infarction. This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness and its clinical applicability of this technique as a remedy for the coronary artery disease. Technique : The pump used for infusion in this study was a Davol Heart Pump Model 8500, which was capable to inject agents at any phase in the cardiac cycle in synchronization with R wave. A pump ventricle with two valves and tubings including an agent reservoir and a catheter were specially designed. A catheter used in this study was a polyethylene tubing with the inside diameter of 1.5 or 2.0 mm and with a length of 30 or 50 cm. A catheter was inserted through the right common carotid artery into the aorta, its tip being placed 0.5 to 2.0 cm above the aortic valve.
