Background: There is an established relationship between depression/anxiety disorders and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality which has been previously documented. However, there has been no study evaluating coronary slow flow in association with depression and anxiety.
Methods and results: A total of consecutive 90 patients were included in the study. All patients completed scoring scales for depression [Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD)] and anxiety (STAI-1, State anxiety subscale of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory; STAI-2, Trait anxiety subscale of State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). Thereafter, they underwent selective coronary angiography and 2 groups were formed: coronary slow flow (n = 42), and normal coronary flow (n = 48). The two groups had comparable baseline characteristics. However, significant differences were found between coronary slow flow and normal coronary flow groups regarding depression (13.1 ± 8.2 and 6.9 ± 6.7, p < 0.001 for HAMD, respectively) and anxiety (46.2 ± 15.0 vs. 32.6 ± 9.9, p < 0.001 for STAI-1 and 51.0 ± 16.7 vs. 43.0 ± 10.7, p = 0.009 for STAI-2, respectively) scores. There were also significant positive correlations between depression/anxiety scores and TIMI frame counts of all major epicardial coronary arteries. In addition, after adjustment for smoking, hypertension, scoring scales, and the presence of depressive mood, all scoring scales and depressive mood were found to be independent risk factors for coronary slow flow in multivariable logistic regression analysis.
Conclusions: Significant association was found among coronary slow flow, depression/anxiety scores and depressive mood.
Key words: Anxiety; Coronary slow flow; Depression; Scale.