title: Long-term prognosis of male patients with an isolated chronic occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term prognosis of patients with an isolated total occlusion of the left anterior descending artery (LAD). A total of 173 male patients with a chronic LAD occlusion and less than 50% narrowing of the other coronary arteries (group I) was compared with a group of 177 male patients with only insignificant coronary artery disease and a normal left ventricular function (group II). Baseline characteristics of both groups were comparable except for the inclusion of 54 patients (31.2%) with moderately or markedly reduced left ventricular systolic function in group I. During an 8-year follow-up period there was a greater number of patients with cardiac events in group I when compared with group II: cardiac death 11.2% versus 0.6% (p less than 0.0001), myocardial infarction 12.7% versus 3.4% (p = 0.001), myocardial revascularization procedures 11.6% versus 3.4% (p = 0.04). Stepwise discriminant analysis showed that a reduced ejection fraction and a family history of coronary artery disease were the best predictors for these adverse cardiac events.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Lierde
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piessens
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Glazier
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vrolix
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: De Geest
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Willems
mesh_terms: D001530:Belgium / Q000453:epidemiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D017023:Coronary Angiography; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013318:Stroke Volume; D016019:Survival Analysis