The effect of successful coronary angioplasty on feelings of exhaustion

Abstract

Excess fatigue and exhaustion are among the most prevalent premonitory complaints of myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. These feelings may reflect subclinical heart disease, prolonged psychological tension, or both. The present study investigates to what extent coronary artery disease explains exhaustion. For this purpose, the relationship between the severity of coronary artery disease and exhaustion, and the relief of exhaustion after successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) is investigated. Patients who had a successful elective PTCA ( N = 120) were evaluated on feelings of exhaustion on admission, 2 weeks after discharge and 6 months after discharge, making use of the Maastricht Questionnaire. Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate to what degree exhaustion on admission and after PTCA was determined by the extent of coronary artery disease and other patient characteristics. Severity of coronary artery disease before PTCA was positively associated with exhaustion and successful PTCA resulted in a significant decrease of exhaustion scores ( P < 0.001). However, less than 5% of the variance of the exhaustion scores before PTCA could be explained by severity of coronary artery disease ( R 2 = 0.04, F = 5.1, P = 0.03). The majority of patients who were exhausted before PTCA remained exhausted after PTCA. Exhaustion was present in 75% of the patients before PTCA and in 65% 2 weeks after PTCA, which indicates that restoration of coronary perfusion by successful PTCA does not substantially reduce the number of exhausted patients. At 6 months, exhaustion was present in 60% of the patients, and there was no difference between patients with and without typical anginal complaints at that time. It is concluded that impaired coronary perfusion can only partially account for the tiredness in patients with CAD and that successful PTCA does not substantially ameliorate feelings of exhaustion.