Myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery without relation to the site of hypertrophy in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery producing complete systolic occlusion was demonstrated in a patient with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, who had localized myocardial hypertrophy in the lateral left ventricular wall outside the territory of that artery. Although a cause and effect relationship between systolic compression of the coronary artery and myocardial hypertrophy has previously been postulated in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the lack of relation between the site of the myocardial bridging and the region of the left ventricular hypertrophy in our patient suggests that the myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery may not be related to the pathogenesis of asymmetric septal hypertrophy.