CARDIAC AUTONOMIC FUNCTION AND SENSITIVITY TO PAIN IN POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN WITH ANGINA AND NORMAL CORONARY-ARTERIES

An increased sensitivity to painful stimuli and an abnormal cardiac au tonomic function have previously been reported in patients with angina and angiographically normal coronary arteries, a syndrome that mainly affects postmenopausal women. In this study we compared both general sensitivity to pain, by evaluating time to forearm ischemic pain (FIP) provoked by sphygmomanometer cuff inflation, and cardiac autonomic fu nction, by measuring heart rate variability (HRV), and QT and QT, inte rvals on 24-hour Holter recordings, in 25 postmenopausal women with an gina and normal coronary arteries and in 22 healthy postmenopausal wom en. Compared with controls, patients had a reproducible strikingly low er time to FIP (149 +/- 121 vs 295 +/- 158 seconds, p <0.001), whereas there were no differences between the 2 groups in HRV variables and m ean 24-hour QT and QT, intervals. HRV indexes, and QT and QT, interval s also showed similar circadian patterns. Thus, our data show that pos tmenopausal women with angina and normal coronary arteries have an enh anced sensitivity to systemic painful stimuli, but no detectable impai rment in cardiac autonomic function compared with a well-matched contr ol group of postmenopausal healthy women. (C) 1997 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.