Coronary Stenosis and Angina: A Better Way to Determine Severity?

There remains some uncertainty about whether many commonly used indices of stenosis severity are associated with angina-limited exercise time. To learn more, investigators characterized stenoses of coronary arteries in 23 patients with stable angina and physiologically severe single-vessel coronary disease scheduled for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

The stenoses were described based on coronary flow reserve (CFR), fractional flow reserve (FFR), hyperemic stenosis resistance (HSR), and instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR). Immediately after the assessment, the patients used a catheterization table–mounted supine ergometer and exercised until they experienced limiting angina. Most of the patients (91%; mean age 60; men, 91%) then un…