Chest pain as a predictor of coronary artery disease in patients with obstructive aortic valve disease

Abstract

To clarify the association between chest pain and significant coronary artery disease in patients who have aortic valve disease, 76 consecutive candidates for aortic valve replacement were evaluated prospectively with use of a historical questionnaire and coronary arteriography. Of the 76 patients, 19 (25 percent) had no chest pain, 21 (28 percent) had chest pain that was not typical of angina pectoris and 36 (47 percent) had chest pain typical of anigina pectoris. In 18 of 19 patients the absence of chest pain correlated with the absence of coronary artery disease. The single patient without chest pain who had coronary artery disease had evidence of an inferior myocardial infarction in the electrocardiogram. Thus, absence of chest pain and the absence of electrocardiographic evidence of infarction predicted the absence of coronary disease in all cases. The presence of chest pain did not predict the presence of coronary artery disease, but the more typical the pain of angina pectoris the more likely were patients to have significant coronary artery disease. Of the 21 patients with atypical chest pain, 6 (29 percent) had coronary artery disease, but of the 36 patients with typical angina pectoris 23 (64 percent) had significant coronary artery disease. In addition, when patients with chest pain not typical of angina pectoris also had coronary artery disease, the diseased vessels usually supplied smaller areas of the left ventricle than when the pain was typical of angina pectoris. In 21 of 23 patients (91 percent) with typical angina pectoris and significant coronary artery disease, lesions were present in the left coronary artery. There was no systolic pressure gradient across the aortic valve that excluded the presence of coronary artery disease, although all patients with a calculated aortic valve area of less than 0.4 cm2 were free of coronary artery disease. Patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction were more likely to have normal coronary arteries.