Gender differences in the prevalence of coronary artery tortuosity and its association with coronary artery disease

Background: Little is known about the significance of severe coronary tortuosity (SCT) despite it being a relatively common finding on coronary angiography. We examined whether the presence of tortuosity was influenced by gender or cardiac risk factors. Methods and results: We examined 870 patients (Men = 589, Women = 281) who presented to Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia for invasive coronary angiography for the assessment of chest pain due to suspected CAD. Female gender and age were significantly associated with SCT (p