[Angina pectoris].

Coronary heart disease has many different clinical courses: it can cause rhythm-disturbances, sudden death, pump-failure, no pain at all (silent ischemia) or typical angina. Heart-pain can occur "on demand" after physical or mental stress with a duration of 3 to 5 minutes with typical location and good response to nitrates. It also can cause atypical forms of angina such as angina on rest, mostly due to coronary spasms. Angina can stable over months and years but can suddenly increase in severity and duration. This form is called unstable angina, which has to be recognized as soon as possible since acute myocardial infarctions evolve rather frequently. Infarction is an irreversible myocardial damage but before it develops many measures can be taken to preserve the jeopardized myocardium. The recognition and differentiation of angina pectoris is therefore of utmost importance.