Dynamics of coronary artery lumina during tests with cold and with intracoronary and sublingual administration of nitroglycerin in patients with different clinical forms of stenocardia

Cold tests and those using intracoronary or sublingual nitroglycerin administration were applied during coronarography to 50 coronary patients with varying clinical manifestations of angina pectoris. The quantitative assessment of angiographic patterns showed the cold and nitroglycerin tests to change significantly the extent of stenosis in patients with spontaneous angina (by +13.3 and -30.8%, respectively) and those with angina of effort and at rest (by +5.6 and -12.0%, respectively) and have no such effect in patients with angina of effort. The change in the stenosed coronary arterial lumen was more marked in cases of excentric localization of the atherosclerotic patch inside the coronary artery, as compared to the concentric arterial narrowing. The data obtained demonstrate the variability of coronary arterial lumen at the site of atherosclerotic stenosis in a certain population of patients.