A Retrospective Demographic Analysis of Patients with Coronary Slow Flow Phenomenon Presented with Severe Myocardial Ischemia

Abstract

Background: The related literature has shown a higher prevalence of definitively positive exercise testing in patients with coronary slow flow phenomenon (CSFP). But there was no similar study to analyze the conventional risk factors of coronary artery disease with the patients of CSFP in our review. We retrospective analyzed patients presented with severe myocardial ischemia which documented by strongly positive Treadmill test, also accepted coronary angiography, and tried to delineate differences in the cardiac risk profile among the patients of significant coronary heart disease (SCHD), CSFP and normal coronary artery groups. Methods: We retrospectively recruited 139 patients presented with severe myocardial ischemia which documented by strongly positive Treadmill test. All patients received coronary angiography at Changhua Christian Hospital Taiwan, from November, 2008 to August, 2010. There were classified into three groups; SCHD (97 patients); CSFP (32 patients); and normal coronary angiography results (10 patients). All cardiac risk factors were recorded and analyzed. Results: The average age in CSFP group is younger than the SCHD group's (56.53 years: 62.57 years, p＜0.025) and normal group's (56.53 years: 64.80 years, p＜0.05). Although the difference of sex between these three groups was not statistically significant, but the percentage of women in the CSFP group is higher than the SCHD group's (37.50%: 28.87%, p=0.19). The most difference of the CAD risk factors between the CSFP and SCHD group is in DM (9.38%: 37.11%, p＜0.025) and hypertension (43.75%: 69.07%, p＜0.025). Conclusion: In our retrospective analysis, the data suggest that the younger females without definite type 2 DM and hypertension, whose Treadmill test showed strong positive, had higher opportunity to suffer from CSFP than SCHD.