Medical Therapy for Chronic Coronary Syndromes: a review
Recently, many randomised controlled trials have been conducted to research the optimal medical therapy for chronic coronary syndromes. This is due to the fact that revascularisation, the original treatment, has failed to reduce rates of death, myocardial infarction or angina symptoms. On the other hand, medical therapy reduces all these events and symptoms, so should be the first-line treatment for such patients. In recent trials, the main findings have summarised that focused, mechanical treatments are ineffective for a diffuse disease like chronic coronary syndrome, and that optimal medical therapy needs to be the move forward. Furthermore, they have highlighted that ischemia may be caused by abnormalities of epicardial coronary arteries. The conclusion is that more research is required into understanding and diagnosing patients with chronic coronary syndrome, as well as their treatment with medication.
This review by Brown DL aimed to review the recent trials regarding treatments for chronic coronary syndrome, summarising their results and limitations.
Key learnings
The key findings summarise that optimal medical therapy should be the first-line approach to treating patients with chronic coronary syndromes. The best, most effective outcomes will not be realised until more research is put into these treatments, as well as the understanding behind diagnosis and management of chronic coronary syndromes.