This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Aetiology

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Angina is pain caused by regional myocardial ischaemia (1). Ischaemia develops when there is inadequate coronary artery blood supply (oxygen demand exceeds supply) (1).

Ischaemia develops when oxygen demand exceeds supply.

The commonest cause of myocardial ischaemia is reduced oxygen supply due to atherosclerotic coronary artery stenosis.

Other causes of reduced oxygen supply include:

  • thrombus formation on fissured atheromatous plaque
  • coronary artery spasm
  • tachycardia, which reduces the time during diastole when blood flows most rapidly through the coronary arteries
  • anaemia and carbon monoxide poisoning

Causes of increased oxygen demand include:

  • exertion
  • hypertension
  • tachycardia
  • aortic stenosis
  • hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Reference:


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation, such as a web address or phone number. This information will always be displayed when you visit this page