[Diagnostics and therapy of chronic stable coronary artery disease : new guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology].

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines on the management of stable coronary artery disease published in 2013 give practical recommendations for diagnostics and therapy. The approach depends on the clinical picture and symptoms of the patient, the severity and extent of ischemia, the degree and location of coronary stenoses, additional cardiac findings and finally on non-cardiac comorbidities. The selection of suitable diagnostic tools is based on the tabulated pretest probability for the presence of coronary artery disease which plays an important and central role in the diagnostic algorithm. An invasive approach is recommended only in patients with severe angina, i.e. a Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS) angina grading scale of ≥ CCS3 or in patients who are at high risk for death or myocardial infarction based on the results of the test used for detection of ischemia. Detailed therapeutic recommendations are given for medicinal and interventional or surgical therapy. Medicinal therapy includes drugs both for relief of symptoms and prevention of cardiovascular events. Recommendations are also given for the use of new antianginal drugs. A PCI is only indicated in vessels causing ischemia which can be verified by using fractional flow reserve measurements. The indications for PCI now also include patients with a low SYNTAX score and multivessel disease or left main stenosis; however, the optimal strategy should be individually determined in heart team discussions.