[Typical angina pectoris = coronary artery disease...until proven otherwise]

Typical angina pectoris most frequently occurs in the presence of episodes of myocardial ischemia. Its presence in a patient belonging to a population with a high prevalence of coronary artery disease entails an extremely high probability of coronary artery lesions. This probability remains extremely high even when functional diagnostic tests such as exercise electrocardiography or myocardial scintigraphy remain negative. This is illustrated by a typical clinical case.