Ponte miocárdica associada a les？es cardiovasculares em bovinos adultos da ra？a Canchim

background: the influence that myocardial bridge exercises over blood stream in the course of arterial segment under the bridge has been discussed by the scientific community. objective: to compare ultrastructural muscle tissue of myocardial bridge and the ventricular wall; to analyze the degree of injury to the tunica intima of the arterial segments, and look for possible changes that may precede or initiate the process of atherosclerotic lesions. methods: forty canchim bovine hearts were studied regarding alterations of the tunica intima from coronary arteries on the different myocardial bridge segments. for the microscopic examination, hematoxylin-eosin and fuchsin-resorcin staining following conventional microscope techniques were made. for the electronic microscopic examination, myocardial bridge segments from twelve canchim bovine hearts were collected from the ventricle wall and coronary artery and were processed according to conventional techniques. results: in the light microscopy, a higher frequency of lesions on prepontine and postpontine segments of the tunica intima was observed, compared to the pontine segment. tunica intima thickenings were followed by a disarrangement on the internal elastic limitant lamina. these cells often presented their cytoplasmas engorged by lipidic drops, making up the so-called foam cells. electronic microscopy revealed that the muscular fibers of the myocardial bridge are usually joined in a straight and smooth way presenting lateral branches with a greater number of mitochondria in the ventricular muscle than in the bridge. conclusion: there are few differences between the muscle tissues studied; intimae lesions are less frequent in pontine regions compared to pre and post-pontine regions.