Many investigators found that there were more severe and extensive atherosclerosis in patients with stable angina pectoris than those with unheralded acute myocardial infarction(AMI). But coronary angiographic findings in patients with or without stable angina pectoris(SAP) prior to acute myocardial infarction are somewhat controversial. And in many articles that compared the coronary angiographic findings between patients with and those without angina prior to acute myocardial infarction, the definition of angina and significant coronary artery stenosis were not uniform. So, coronary angiographic finding were compared between patients with and those without stable anginal pectoris prior to AMI according to scoring system suggested by Bogarty.

Coronary angiography was performed in 141 patients with AMI. Angiographic findings of patients with SAP prior to AMI were compared to those without SAP prior to AMI. Risk factors of coronary artery disease were also compared.

1) Numbers of the patients with SAP were 34(24%) and those without SAP were 107(76%).

2) Numbers of stenosed vessels, Numbers of tenosed lesions, extent index and percent of diffuse pattern were higher in SAP group(p<0.05).

3) Numbers of diseased vessels and occluded lesions were not different between two groups(Pvalue was 0.07 and 0.5, respectively).

4) patients with SAP were older than those without SAP(p = 0.03).

5) Sex ratio and prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and smoking were not different between two groups.

6) Lipid profiles were not different between two groups.

Patients with SAP prior to AMI had more severe and extensive atherosclerosis than those without stable angina pectoris prior to AMI.