[The limits of the medical treatment of angina pectoris]

The limitations of medical treatment in angina pectoris depend on its efficacity and indications. 1. Efficacity of medical treatment.--Anti-anginal drugs are able to relieve anginal pain in at least 3/4 of cases. However, the ability of medical measures (diet, exercise, stopping smoking, hypolipidemic drugs, antihypertensive drugs, anticoagulants, platelet anti-aggregants, antiarrhythmics, inotropic agents, vasodilators and diuretics) to prevent coronary atherosclerosis delay its progression and prevent its complications--so increasing the life expectancy of coronary patients--remains very uncertain. 2. Frontiers and judications of medical treatment.--Coronary patients with few or no symptoms appear to be best suited for long-term anti-anginal treatment with long acting nitrate derivatives and/or betablockers. The ability of the latter group to increase the life expectancy of all coronary patients remains to be shown. The limits of the indications of medical treatment are more difficult to define either by purely subjective criteria (incapacitating angina after trials of anti-anginal drugs at adapted doses) or by "objective" criteria (ergometry, coronary angiography).