Atypical Double Right Coronary Artery Presenting With Acute Coronary Syndrome, Cardiogenic Shock and Complete Heart Block

Double right coronary artery in primary PCI: Finding the hidden treasure…

Double Right Coronary Artery (RCA) is one of the rarest congenital coronary anomalies. Although it can be regarded as a benign condition in the vast majority of cases, it has been associated with acute and life-threatening presentations, including inferior ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), cardiogenic shock and complete heart block, tachyarrhythmias, or even sudden death. However, the role of a double RCA in these conditions is yet to be clarified as more recent data prove no statistically significant association between prevalence of significant atherosclerosis in anomalous coronary arteries in comparison to normal coronary arteries. Here we present a case of inferior STEMI in the context of double RCA, in which one of the two component branches was accidentally found after an "unexpected" jump of the coronary guidewire to treat what was initially considered the main vessel.

Double right coronary artery and its clinical significance: Review of the literature

Double right coronary artery is a very rare anomaly that is usually discovered incidentally during conventional coronary angiography. Double right coronary artery may have clinical implications in symptomatic patients requiring percutaneous coronary intervention and may be associated with other congenital abnormalities, myocardial ischemia and ventricular fibrillation in the absence of atherosclerosis. Here the reported cases in the literature are reviewed and a case of double right coronary artery with ischemia in inferior left ventricular wall is presented.