Cardiac autonomic function and sensitivity to pain in postmenopausal women with angina and normal coronary arteries

An increased sensitivity to painful stimuli and an abnormal cardiac autonomic function have previously been reported in patients with angina and angiographically normal coronary arteries, a syndrome that mainly affects postmenopausal women. In this study we compared both general sensitivity to pain, by evaluating time to forearm ischemic pain (FIP) provoked by sphygmomanometer cuff inflation, and cardiac autonomic function, by measuring heart rate variability (HRV), and QT and QT, intervals on 24-hour Holter recordings, in 25 postmenopausal women with angina and normal coronary arteries and in 22 healthy postmenopausal women. Compared with controls, patients had a reproducible strikingly lower time to FIP (149 +/- 121 vs 295 +/- 158 seconds, p <0.001), whereas there were no differences between the 2 groups in HRV variables and mean 24-hour QT and QT, intervals. HRV indexes, and QT and QT, intervals also showed similar circadian patterns. Thus, our data show that postmenopausal women with angina and normal coronary arteries have an enhanced sensitivity to systemic painful stimuli, but no detectable impairment in cardiac autonomic function compared with a well-matched control group of postmenopausal healthy women. (C) 1997 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.