Clinical and Coronary Angiographic Findings of 400 Korean Adults with Coronary Artery Disease

The clinical and angiographic findings of Korean adults with coronary artery disease (obstructions exceeding 50% of the internal diameter of the lumen of one or more major coronary arteries) were studied in 400 of 670 patients on whom selective cinecoronary arteriograms were performed at the Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University, College of Medicine between January 1981 and August 1986. Among the 400 cases with significant coronary atherosclerosis, a clinical diagnosis of unstable angina (including new-onset angina in which angina developed within 3 months) was made in 45.8%, stable angina in 16.0%, variant angina, 3.7%, acute myocardial infarction, 17.3%, and old myocardial infarction, 17.3%. Single vessel disease was more prevalent in the group with unstable angina (53%) than with stable angina (47%). The incidence of multi-vessel involvement was low in patients with acute myocardial infarction (46%), in contrast to a much higher incidence in the group with old myocardial infarction with angina (76%). An average of 2.2 lesions resulting in at least 50% luminal narrowing of the major arteries was found per patient. The anterior descending coronary artery was involved more frequently than other vessels.