Angina In Patients with Non-Obstructive Coronary Angiograms: Six-Years Follow-up

Background: About one third of patients undergoing coronary angiography for angina have non-obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). Until recent years the prognosis has been thought to be favourable and no treatment were recommended. More recently, an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) events has been documented in these patients compared with a general population. We aimed to evaluate the long term persistence of angina and the occurrence of major CV events in patients with stable angina and nonobstructive CAD. Methods We retrospectively evaluated all patients with effort angina referred to the cardiac catheterization laboratory of the Cardiovascular Unit, University of Catania, Sicily, between 1st July 2008 and 31st December 2009, because of a clinical suspicion of myocardial ischemia, without obstructive CAD, defined as <50% stenosis of left main stem or