Tag: diagnosis

Research

Invasive and non-invasive assessment of ischaemia in chronic coronary syndromes:...

Intracoronary physiology testing has emerged as a valuable diagnostic approach in the management of patients with chronic coronary syndrome, circumventing limitations like inferring coronary function from anatomical assessment and low spatial resolution associated with angiography or non-invasive tests.

The value of hyperaemic translesional pressure ratios to estimate the functional relevance of coronary stenoses is supported by a wealth of prognostic data. The continuing drive to further simplify this approach led to the development of non-hyperaemic pressure-based indices. Recent attention has focussed on estimating physiology without even measuring coronary pressure.

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Research

Microvascular Angina: Diagnosis and Management

Recognition of suspected ischaemia with no obstructive coronary artery disease – termed INOCA – has increased over the past decades, with a key contributor being microvascular angina. Patients with microvascular angina are at higher risk for major adverse cardiac events including MI, stroke, heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and death but to date there are no clear evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis and treatment.

Recently, the Coronary Vasomotion Disorders International Study Group proposed standardised criteria for diagnosis of microvascular angina using invasive and non-invasive approaches. The management strategy remains empirical, largely due to the lack of high-level evidence-based guidelines and clinical trials. In this review, the authors will illustrate the updated approach to the diagnosis of microvascular angina and address evidence-based pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for patients with the condition.

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Research

Microvascular Angina: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment

In patients with angina symptoms but with no coronary artery disease, as revealed by normal or near-normal coronary angiogram, a potential diagnosis of microvascular angina (MVA) might be considered.

This review examines the evidence on long-term prognosis, state-of-the-art assessment and treatment strategies, and the overwhelming need for standardisation of diagnostic pathways in this patient population. The rising clinical relevance of MVA is explored along with how the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease on coronary angiography may not be a guarantee of benign prognosis in this patient subgroup.

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Research

Coronary microvascular dysfunction in stable ischaemic heart disease

Diffuse and focal epicardial coronary disease and coronary microvascular abnormalities may exist side-by-side. Identifying the contributions of each of these three players in the coronary circulation is a difficult task.

Yet identifying coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) as an additional player in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) may provide explanations of why symptoms may persist frequently following and why global coronary flow reserve may be more prognostically important than fractional flow reserve measured in a single vessel before percutaneous coronary intervention.

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Research

Clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with microvascular angina: an...

To provide multi-national, multi-ethnic data on the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with microvascular angina (MVA). The Coronary Vasomotor Disorders International Study Group proposed the diagnostic criteria for MVA. We prospectively evaluated the clinical characteristics of patients according to these criteria and their prognosis.

The primary endpoint was the composite of major cardiovascular events (MACE), verified by institutional investigators, which included cardiovascular death, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke, and hospitalization due to heart failure or unstable angina.

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Research

An EAPCI Expert Consensus Document on Ischaemia with Non-Obstructive Coronary...

This consensus document, a summary of the views of an expert panel organized by the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI), appraises the importance of ischaemia with non-obstructive coronary arteries (INOCA).

Angina pectoris affects approximately 112 million people globally. Up to 70% of patients undergoing invasive angiography do not have obstructive coronary artery disease, more common in women than in men, and a large proportion have INOCA as a cause of their symptoms.

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Real Patient Stories

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Lynn’s story

I had my first spasm when I was just a young child and continued for almost 50 years with no diagnosis. I always assumed everybody had flushing feelings throughout their body, and hot flashes accompanied by chest pain.

It wasn’t until I was walking my dogs with my sister, one day, and we were going up a steep incline and I couldn’t keep up. I asked her if she felt chest pains when she walked up hills. She looked at me like I was crazy and told me: No!

I then realized something might be wrong with me.

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Dima’s story

March 3rd, 2021 was the day that changed everything. At 55, I had a busy counselling practice and a few other projects on the go. The pandemic was causing anxiety for many of my clients and in my private life. I had a lot of stress of my own: there were safety issues in the building where I lived, and I was looking for a new apartment. Despite this, I thought I was handling it well. I was fairly healthy, I walked daily, ate well, meditated and didn’t smoke or drink.

I started to experience heavy fatigue towards the end of 2020 but told myself it was normal considering all that was going on in the world.

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MaryAnn’s story

When I was 39, with zero risk factors for heart disease, I had all the classic symptoms associated with a heart attack. My doctors put me on three blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a minor artery seen in an angiogram. The next day, while the original clot had dissolved, I had a clot in a larger artery. Baffled, the cardiologists put in a stent. As they backed the scope out of the artery, it spasmed in another location.

At that time, I had a 4-year-old, an 8-year-old, and a 12-year-old. My husband traveled extensively for work. I asked myself two questions: 1) How do I feel about dying at age 39? 2) If I don’t die, how do I live?

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