Definitions and incidence of cardiac syndrome X: review and analysis of clinical data

Comparison of cardiovascular risk factors and biochemical profile in patients with cardiac syndrome X and obstructive coronary artery disease: A propensity score-matched study

BACKGROUND

This study was designed to compare the frequency of conventional cardiovascular disease risk factors and clinical biochemistry profile in patients with cardiac syndrome X (CSX) and obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD).

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with typical angina and positive exercise tolerance test undergoing coronary angiography in our center. 342 consecutive patients with CSX were enrolled into this study and were matched regarding age and sex with 342 patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and also 342 patients with chronic stable angina (SA). Cardiovascular risk factors as well as biochemistry profile of the patients were recorded.

RESULTS

Mean age of the studied patients was 53.0 years and 41.5% were male. There was no significant difference between the CSX patients and CAD patients regarding body mass index (BMI). Frequency of diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking, family history of premature CAD and hypertension was significantly lower in patients with CSX than ACS and SA patients. Patients with CSX had significantly higher levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) than comparators while the levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol), total cholesterol, triglyceride and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were significantly lower in patients with CSX than CAD patients.

CONCLUSION

The present study demonstrated that CSX patients had substantially lower frequency of all conventional CVD risk factors than patients with obstructive CAD. This might aid in developing novel scoring systems or appropriateness criteria for angiographic evaluation of patients with typical angina and positive exercise test in order to reduce the rate of negative results.

Therapeutic approach in the improvement of endothelial dysfunction: the current state of the art

The endothelium has a central role in the regulation of blood flow through continuous modulation of vascular tone. This is primarily accomplished by balanced release of endothelial relaxing and contractile factors. The healthy endothelial cells are essential for maintenance of vascular homeostasis involving antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, pro-fibrinolytic, anti-adhesive, or anticoagulant effects. Oppositely, endothelial dysfunction is primarily characterized by impaired regulation of vascular tone as a result of reduced endothelial nitric oxide (NO) synthase activity, lack of cofactors for NO synthesis, attenuated NO release, or increased NO degradation. So far, the pharmacological approach in improving/reversal of endothelial dysfunction was shown to be beneficial in clinical trials that have investigated actions of different cardiovascular drugs. The aim of this paper was to summarize some of the latest clinical findings related to therapeutic possibilities for improving endothelial dysfunction in different pathological conditions. In the majority of presented clinical investigations, the assessment of improvement or reversal of endothelial dysfunction was performed through the flow-mediated dilatation measurement, and in some of those endothelial progenitor cells' count was used for the same purpose. Still, given the fast and continuous development of this field, the evidence acquisition included the MEDLINE data base screening and the selection of articles published between 2010 and 2012.

Long-term prognosis of patients with cardiac syndrome X: a review

Aims

Follow-up studies of patients with cardiac syndrome X (CSX) generally report good prognosis. However, some recent studies report an adverse outcome for women.

Methods and results

Structured literature search and meta-analysis for studies regarding prognosis of cardiac syndrome X patients. We identified 85 studies, ultimately selecting 16 for inclusion. Meta-analysis yielded a pooled major cardiac event percentage of 1.5% per 5 years and a pooled vascular event percentage of 4.8% per 5 years (n = 16 studies, n = 1694 patients). Fourteen studies reported upon the recurrence rate of angina pectoris: the pooled percentage of angina recurrence was 55% (n = 1336 patients).

Conclusion

The present review of recent archival literature demonstrates an overall major cardiac event rate of 1.5% per 5 years. Although this is an excellent prognosis for CSX patients, the quality of life is impaired because of the high recurrence rate of angina pectoris (55%).