From 50 consecutive patients with cardiac syndrome X, we prospectively recruited 16 who exhibited coronary slow-flow during angiography. The remaining 34 patients served as controls. The slow-flow phenomenon was invariably worsened by nitrates and reversed by papaverine. During slow-flow, a dose of 99m-Tc-Methoxy-isobutyl-isonitrile (MIBI) was injected in 12 patients and SPECT imaging performed 1xa0;h later. The perfusion study was repeated after 2xa0;days at rest and, in 9 patients, at peak exercise after 10xa0;±xa0;4xa0;days. Patients were then regularly followed-up.
All 12 patients had a significant MIBI defect in the regions served by the coronary artery that showed slow-flow just prior MIBI injection. After exercise, MIBI tomograms revealed a perfusion defect in 5 out of the 9 patients who underwent stress scanning. At 14xa0;±xa0;2xa0;years follow-up, 1 patient with slow-flow had died and 4 developed significant coronary artery disease (CAD), while all patients of the control group were alive and none had developed significant CAD.
These results show that the slow-flow phenomenon might be the cause of transient myocardial underperfusion in patients with angina and normal coronary arteries. Apparently, this phenomenon is associated with a worse cardiac prognosis. Therefore, patients with coronary slow-flow should be carefully followed-up.