Comparison of Clinical characteristics and long-term outcomes of patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy with versus without angina pectoris (from the Duke Databank for Cardiovascular Disease)

Myocardial ischemic origin is a significant independent predictor of mortality in patients with heart failure (HF). The implications of angina pectoris (AP) in HF are less well characterized. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with and without AP in a cohort of patients with reduced ejection fractions and ischemic cardiomyopathy (iCM). Patients who underwent coronary angiography at Duke University Medical Center from January 2000 to September 2009 with ejection fractions <40% and diagnoses of iCM with AP in the previous 6 weeks were compared to similar patients without AP. Time to event was examined using Kaplan-Meier methods for 5 end points: death; death or nonfatal myocardial infarction (MI); death, MI, or revascularization; death or hospitalization; and cardiovascular (CV) death or CV hospitalization. Of 2,376 patients with iCM, 1,412 (59%) had AP. They had more co-morbidities and more previous revascularization than patients without AP. After multivariate adjustment, those with and without AP had similar risks for death (p = 0.32), death or MI (p = 0.15), and death or hospitalization (p = 0.37) (5-year event rates 41% vs 41%, 46% vs 47%, and 87% vs 85%, respectively), but those with AP had lower rates of death, MI, or revascularization (p = 0.01) and higher rates of CV death or CV hospitalization (p = 0.03) (5-year event rates 85% vs 87% and 77% vs 73%, respectively). In conclusion, AP is common in patients with iCM despite medical therapy and previous revascularization and is associated with increased CV death or CV rehospitalization.