Normal coronary angiography: Survival and functional status at 6 years.

Despite the development of non-invasive diagnostic techniques, the absence of significant coronary stenosis is observed in 10 to 30% of coronary angio graphic studies, The authors report the survival and functional status at 6 years of 172 consecutive patients with symptoms of angina without signific ant angiographic coronary stenosis. The average age was 60.8 years with a sex ratio of 1.1 and chest pain as th e indication for coronary angiography in over 90% of cases. The global mort ality after an average of 75.6 months follow-up was 11%, lower in women (8. 5%) than in men (13.3%) with an annual mortality of 16.3 per thousand. Sudd en death was observed in 4 patients and a third of deaths was of cardiac or igin. The persistence of symptoms was reported by 58% of patients, mainly atypica l chest pain. Despite the result of coronary angiography, nearly half of th e patients were followed up annually by a cardiologist, two thirds remained on anti-anginal therapy, 20% were treated by psychotropic agents and hospi tal admission to the cardiology department was required in 22% of cases dur ing follow-up. None of the patients had myocardial infarction. Survival and myocardial function after normal coronary angiography therefor e appear to be good in contrast with the functional status of these patient s.