[Prevalence of coronary disease in patients with aortic stenosis]

We analyzed a consecutive series of 188 patients, older than 44 years, with significant aortic stenosis, who underwent coronary arteriography (73 women and 115 men). There were 38 patients (20.2%) with coronary artery disease ( or = 50% reduction in the luminal diameter). Sixty-eight patients had typical angina pectoris, 52 atypical angina, and 68 did not have chest pain. We found to have coronary disease in 29.4%, 23.1% and 8.8% respectively. Sensitivity of typical angina to detect coronary disease was 52.6%, with an specificity of 68%, and a negative predictive value of 85%. Inclusion of atypical angina improved the sensitivity to 84.2%, and the negative predictive value to 91.2%, but lessened the specificity to 41.4%. Six patients among the 38 with coronary disease (15.7%), did not have chest pain, and 3 of them were younger than 60 years. We conclude that absence of angina is not enough to exclude coronary artery disease in patients 50 years old with aortic stenosis being considered for aortic valve replacement.