Baseline characteristics and seven-year follow-up of patients with coronary slow flow: A cohort study in northeastern Iran.

Introduction: An angiographic finding known as "coronary slow flow phenomenon" (CSFP) occurs when there is no discernible stenosis but the contrast flow is slower than usual. Although the prognosis for the majority of CSFP cases is favorable, frequent angina significantly lowers their quality of life. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the potential contributing risk factors and prognostic implications of CSFP on long-term cardiovascular outcomes.

Methods: This retrospective, cohort study was conducted between years 2014-2022 and included a total of 65 CSFP patients and 65 controls with normal coronary flow, as evidenced by coronary angiography. These two groups were examined in terms of future cardiovascular consequences due to this phenomenon, baseline demographic characteristics, and laboratory findings. A P value<0.05 was considered significant.

Results: In this study 130 people including 73 men and 57 women, who because of the typical chest pain and at least a noninvasive test took angiography, were explored. The median triglyceride (200.80±48.51 vs 131.79±34.22, P<0.001), total cholesterol (189.46±10.84 vs 103.43±8.13, P<0.001), and low-density lipoprotein (153.28±34.28 vs 103.34±19.70, P=0.01) were significantly higher in the affected people. During clinical follow-up, a higher number of major adverse cardiac events (8.97±2.95 vs 4.52±2.12, P<0.001) was observed in the CSFP cases. Moreover, a one-unit increase in body mass index raised the probability of adverse cardiac events by 0.912 in CSFP cases.

Conclusion: Our research indicated that individuals with CSFP were more likely to develop cardiac events including unstable angina. Furthermore, obesity and dyslipidemia could provoke this phenomenon.