Does treatment with calcium channel blockers improve survival without infarction in patients with variant angina compared to other medical treatments?
In patients with variant angina, long-term survival is strongly predicted by the extent of underlying coronary disease, and treatment with calcium channel blockers significantly improves survival without infarction.
The long-term prognosis of variant angina and the factors influencing it were assessed in 217 consecutive patients hospitalized in our coronary care unit and followed for a mean of 65 months (range 2 to 123). Cardiac death occurred in 30 patients and an additional 54 experienced a nonfatal myocardial infarction. Survival at 1 and 5 years was 95% and 89%, respectively; survival without infarction was 83% and 69%. Coronary disease and the degree of disease activity were strong predictors of survival by Cox analysis. Survival at 1 year was 99%, and that at 5 years was 95% and 94%, respectively, for patients with one-vessel disease (n = 81) and for those without stenoses of 70% or greater (n = 87). Survival at 1 and 5 years was only 87% and 77% for those with multivessel disease (n = 40). The Cox analysis selected left ventricular function, initial treatment, extent score, duration of angina at rest, and disease activity as multivariate predictors of survival without infarction. Coronary disease was a strong predictor (p less than .0001) of survival without infarction by univariate analysis. Treatment with nifedipine, diltiazem, or verapamil improved survival without infarction compared with other medical treatment (p = .002). Myocardial infarction occurred most commonly soon after diagnosis in patients with a short history of angina at rest. Late coronary events were almost never preceded by resting angina.
Walling et al. (1987) studied this question.