Unstable angina clinical presentation

Patients with acute coronary syndromes such as acute myocardial infarction and unstable angina remain at risk for recurrent myocardial ischemia despite therapy with antiplatelet agents and heparin. Although first clinical trials indicate a possible use of oral direct TIs for the prevention of cardiovascular events in patients after acute myocardial infarction, the presently available data are still limited and it has not... 

Nesto RW, Waxman S, Mittleman MA, et al. Angioscopy of culprit coronary lesions in unstable angina pectoris and correlation of clinical presentation with plaque morphology. Am J Cardiol 1998 81 225-228. 

Table 3 presents the baseline demographic, clinical, and angiographic characteristics of the patients. Mean age was 63 years, More than 60% of patients presented with unstable angina 20% were diabetic, 23% had a previous AMI, and more than 80% had class B or C lesions according to the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association classification. 

Peripheral arterial occlusion can be the initial manifestation of cardiac or systemic disease. At times, patients with chronic stable claudication may experience abrupt shortening of the distance at which claudication occurs, and this may be the only symptomatic evidence of an acute arterial occlusion either by embolization of by thrombus formation on a pre-existing arterial stenosis. The situation is not chronic and stable any more, but acute and unstable. As ischemia becomes more severe, the patient with chronic peripheral arterial disease develops ischemic pain at rest. The pathophysiologic mechanisms and the clinical presentation parallel the evolution of chronic stable angina pectoris to unstable angina and acute coronary syndromes. 

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