Myocardial bridge - an unusual but important cause of chest pain
Channel: York Cardiology
Date: 10/01/2020

In this video, Dr Sanjay Gupta discusses an important cause of unresolving and potentially dangerous cause of chest pain. Please consider sharing with anyone who may benefit and subscribing to my channel. My whatsapp is 447951310008 and my instagram is #yorkcardiology.

The heart is a muscle and any living muscle needs a blood supply. The blood is supplied by arteries that are known as coronary ateries. Usually these arteries sit on the surface of the heart. However sometimes a portion of the artery may run an intramuscular course for a portion of its length. This is termed a myocardial bridge. 
The problem with a bridge is that there is a possibility that this blood vessel can become compressed when the heart contracts because it is within the muscle and therefore one could postulate that if the heart muscle contract, the blood vessel constricts and therefore the heart muscle would be deprived of blood and this could be dangerous. However this does not happen in the vast majority because the coronary arteries actually fill with blood when the heart is relaxing and therefore when the heart contracts there is not a huge impact on the coronary flow. Nevertheless there are many cases in the literature where a myocardial bridge has been reported as being the cause behind symptoms such as angina, heart attacks and even sudden death but this is in a very small number of patients.