Task Force per il Trattamento dell'Angina Pectoris Stabile della Societa Europea di Cardiologia

Stable angina pectoris is a common and sometimes disabling disorder. The development of new tools for the diagnostic and prognostic assessments of patients, along with the continually evolving evidence base for various treatment strategies, mandates that existing guidelines1 be revised and updated. Therefore, the Task Force has obtained opinions from a wide variety of experts and has tried to achieve agreement on the best contemporary approaches to the care of stable angina pectoris, bearing in mind not only the efficacy and safety of treatments, but also the cost and the availability of resources. The Task Force has taken the view that these guidelines should reflect the pathophysiology and management of angina pectoris caused by myocardial ischaemia due to coronary artery disease (CAD), usually macrovascular but also microvascular in some of the patients. Furthermore, this Task Force does not deal with primary prevention, which has already been covered in other recently published guidelines2 and has limited its discussion on secondary prevention. Recently published guidelines and consensus statements that overlap to a considerable extent with the remit of this document are listed in the complete version of the guidelines available on-line.