Health related quality of life after conservative or invasive treatment of inducible postinfarction ischaemia

OBJECTIVE To assess health related quality of life in patients with inducible postinfarction ischaemia. DESIGN A questionnaire based follow up study on patients randomised to conservative or invasive treatment because of postinfarction ischaemia. SETTING Seven county hospitals in eastern Denmark and the Heart Centre, National University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark. PATIENTS 113 patients with inducible postinfarction ischaemia: 51 were randomised to conservative treatment and 62 to invasive treatment. Average follow up time was three years (19–57 months). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES SF-36, Rose angina and dyspnoea questionnaire, drug use, lifestyle, and cognitive function. RESULTS Invasively treated patients scored better on the SF-36 scales of physical functioning (p = 0.03) and on role-physical (p = 0.04) and physical component scales (p = 0.05) and took significantly less anti-ischaemic drug treatment. Angina occurred in 18% of the invasively treated patients and 31% of the conservatively treated patients (p = 0.09). However, more invasively treated patients suffered from concentration difficulties (18% v 4%; p = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS Patients who were treated invasively had better health related quality of life scores in the physical variables compared with conservatively treated patients. However, a larger proportion of invasively treated patients had concentration difficulties.