Wellens’ Syndrome: Focus on Diagnosis and Choice of Myocardial Revascularization Strategy

Wellens’ syndrome is an extremely relevant issue in modern cardiology. Wellens’ syndrome is quite often untimely diagnosed, and the patient’s management is the same as in case of unstable angina. Since without myocardial revascularization, widespread myocardial infarction develops within the following days or weeks, myocardial revascularization is needed as soon as possible. Characteristic changes on the electrocardiogram in case of Wellens’ syndrome include biphasic (type A) or inverted (type B) T waves in leads V2-V3, which sometimes are seen in other precordial leads. There must be a history of recent angina in addition to these electrocardiogram changes. Troponin is usually negative; however, it can be slightly elevated. Sometimes, patients with classic electrocardiogram changes and clinical picture typical for Wellens’ syndrome do not show hemodynamically significant stenosis of the left anterior descending artery typical for this syndrome. In such cases, “pseudo-Wellens’ syndrome” is observed. Three cases of angiographically confirmed Wellens’ syndrome and one case of pseudo-Wellens’ syndrome are presented in this paper. All the patients with Wellens’ syndrome had significant lesions of the left anterior descending artery. One patient had a triple-vessel lesion, and the other two had a single-vessel lesion. Troponin I was within normal limits in one patient, and slightly elevated and in the other two. These patients underwent successful myocardial revascularization (percutaneous coronary intervention); pharmacological therapy was prescribed.