Assessment of prognosis in chronic coronary artery disease

or many patients with chronic coronary artery disease, risk stratification as to likelihood of cardiac death lays at the basis of choosing between the two major therapeutic options of medical management or revascularisation. The target population is those with an intermediate risk of cardiac death, as patients known to be at high or low risk are already adequately risk stratified for clinical decisions. Perfusion imaging is frequently used for these purposes because it can separate patients into low (, 1%), intermediate (1–3%), and high (. 3%) likelihoods for the major coronary events. In general, contemplation for revascularisation therapy for patients with mild to moderate symptoms would depend on the likelihood of a major coronary event being greater than 3 % per year, in whom revascularisation may confer a survival advantage. Someone with a, 1 % annual event rate might