Comparative study on natural history of coronary atherosclerosis in 83 patients with effort angina between medical and surgical group were designed based on two coronary arteriograms.
The second coronary arteriograms were performed averaged 9 months after the initial angiography. Progression or regression were defined as 6 categories in severity of each coronary artery based on Kramer's criteria.
1) Incidence of progression was found in 50 of all patients with no relation to the age. Especially, the types of that were most frequently recognized as the categories of a) less than 100 to 100%, b) less than 30% to greater than 50%.While, the incidence of regression was found in only 4% with the non-infarcted patients.
2) As for progression in relation to the interval, the peak of that's incidence was recognized as one year later after CABG, however, these incidences were significant within 6 months in both groups.
3) In relation to coronary artery, the incidence of progression was highest in right coronary artery with medical group. On the other hand, that was significantly high in left circumflex coronary artery of the non-grafted vessels surgically.
4) As conclusion, serial coronary arteriograms are very important to evaluate the progressive arterial change or regression in patients with the ischemic heart disease.