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A patient with a history of coronary artery bypass grafting was admitted with severe hemoptysis. Bronchoscopy showed recent bleeding with clot formation in the lingular bronchus, but no tumor was visualized. Several biopsies of the underlying mucosa were negative. Coronary angiography showed patent venous and arterial bypass grafts. Selective angiography of the left internal mammary artery revealed one large and two smaller aberrant bronchial side branches, which probably caused the lingular hemorrhage. We performed embolization of the largest aberrant branch. After a follow-up of 3 months, hemoptysis had not recurred.

Background: The patency of biologic small-diameter vascular grafts in the aortocoronary position is still unsatisfactory. Most of the studies suggest that xenografts are to be avoided as an aortocoronary bypass., Methods: The porcine internal mammary artery treated by the No-React II procedure was developed for use as an alternative coronary artery bypass conduit. The attempt of this study was to evaluate the patency and histologic changes of the porcine internal mammary artery in animals. Five calves underwent coronary artery bypass grafting with a porcine internal mammary artery graft to the right coronary artery. After euthanasia of the animals 103 days later, the samples of these grafts were studied morphologically for patency, structural changes, calcifications, and inflammatory and immunologic response., Results: One animal died during the procedure as result of acute thrombosis of the porcine internal mammary artery graft. In the other 4 animals all grafts became occluded. In the histologic sections of the grafts we noted multiple calcifications and a host-graft immunologic reaction (severe chronic rejection)., Conclusions: The present study demonstrates a very poor experience with the porcine internal mammary artery (No-React II) conduit. We do not recommend this prosthesis for clinical use in humans.