Medical management of ischemic heart disease

Medical therapy primarily affects myocardial oxygen demands. Nitrates and other vasodilators decrease filling pressure, ventricular diastolic volume and to some extent, impedance to ventricular emptying. Beta blockers decrease myocardial contractility and heart rate through a reduction of sympathetic neural traffic. Afterload reduction by the control of hypertension and preload reduction via the LaPlace relationship through reversal of congestive failure are critical for successful therapy. Modification of smoking habits and personality traits with renunciation of a sedentary life-style are also therapeutically useful. While increases in myocardial blood flow have depended primarily on surgical revascularization procedures, calcium antagonists such as nifedipine have been shown to affect flow by reversing vasospasm, which has been recognized with increasing frequency as a concomitant of even fixed coronary arterial disease. The first therapy, however, is diet since it affects both the supply and demand sides of myocardial oxygen balance. Reduction of body bulk decreases myocardial oxygen demand since both vary in obligate parallel. Religious abstention from saturated fats and cholesterol-containing foods, especially by those with pre-existing coronary heart disease, may arrest the otherwise inexorable deterioration.