%0 Journal Article %T Descri£¿£¿o morfol¨®gica e implica£¿£¿es cl¨ªnicas de pontes mioc¨¢rdicas: um estudo anat£¿mico em colombianos %A Acun£¿ %A Luis Ernesto Ballesteros %A Aristeguieta %A Luis Miguel Ram¨ªrez %A Tellez %A Saldarriaga Bladimir %J Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia %D 2009 %I Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia - SBC %R 10.1590/S0066-782X2009000400002 %X background: myocardial bridges represent a hotly debated research topic. myocardial bridges are considered to be a vascular heart variation due to its intermittent or enduring reducing of the arterial lumen, with a possible ischemic effect. methods: 154 hearts were studied, having been extracted as fresh autopsy material. coronary arteries were injected with synthetic resin and cleaned by extracting the pericardial fat. results: 92 myocardial bridges were observed in 62 hearts (40.3%). average myocardial bridge length was 19.9 mm. myocardial bridges varied per artery from one myocardial bridge in 42 hearts (27.3%), two myocardial bridges in 11 hearts (7.2%), three myocardial bridges in 8 hearts (5.2%) and four myocardial bridges in 1 heart (0.7%). most myocardial bridges coincided with the anterior interventricular artery in its proximal and intermediate segments in 61 cases (39.6%) and left diagonal artery in 11 cases (7.2%). arteries emitted just before myocardial bridges (pre-bridge branch) in 50 cases (54.3%) of the sample, with an average caliber of 1.41 mm. a third coronary artery was present in 46 cases (29.8%) of total sample. a higher frequency of myocardial bridges was found in hearts with a third coronary artery. conclusion: it is necessary to consider the clinical importance of the variations considering the arterial distribution and associated clinical implications. %K coronary vessels %K myocardial bridging %K chest pain %K myocardial ischemia. %U http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_abstract&pid=S0066-782X2009000400002&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en