Systematic Assessment of Competitive Flow in Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts by Wave Intensity Analysis

Narrowing of the arteries that supply blood to the heart can lead to heart attacks and death. One way of treating this is to use artery and vein grafts from other parts of the body to bypass the narrowing. However, the blood flow from these grafts "competes" with flow through the natural coronary artery. This may contribute to grafts narrowing with time. This protocol aims to determine the pressure changes responsible for this effect. This could improve our understanding of why some grafts last longer than others.