The primary goal of this book is to survey issues pertaining to coronary venous retroperfusion
a potentially beneficial treatment of myocardial ischemia. Since attention will be focused on
the myocardium its normal or deranged antegrade perfusion will be discussed first along with
factors affecting blood supply to region ally ischemic tissue. After pointing to coronary
reperfusion and its rapidly expand ing applications the principle of coronary venous
interventions will be discussed. Recent anatomic observations are presented to clarify features
of the coronary venous sytems some of which remain inadequately defined yet play a crucial
role in determining effectiveness of all retrograde methods. The remainder of the text
concentrates on the development of retroperfusion sytems designed for retrograde treatment of
myocardium jeopardized by deficient ante grade blood delivery sec ondary to coronary artery
obstruction. Retroinfusion of contrast is also considered as a potential diagnostic tool. The
final chapter of the book reports on recent efforts aimed at a mathematical modeling of
mechanisms and effects of coronary venous interventions.
