Prognostic Value of Bicycle Ergometry in Medically Treated Patients with Three-vessel Coronary Artery Disease

“Patients with three-vessel coronary artery disease and stable angina assigned to coronary bypass surgery had an improved survival in the European Coronary Surgery Study.1 In the Coronary Artery Surgery Study2 and in the Veterans Administration Cooperative Study,3 improved survival in the surgical group was confirmed only in patients with three-vessel disease accompanied by impaired left ventricular function. Exercise testing has had prognostic significance in other studies, and the objective evidence of ischemia during exercise identifies a subgroup of patients with three-vessel disease at increased risk of dying during medical therapy.4-6