Several studies in the past few years have convincingly shown that coronary microvascular dysfunction plays an important role in several cardiovascular diseases. The Working Group and its Nucleus members discuss this development in a number of published and planned review articles in order to provide a rational basis for the future developmentin this area:
In the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med. 2007 Feb 22;356(8)), P. Camici and F. Crea published a review article under the title 'Coronary microvascular dysfunction' which provides a classification of coronary microvascular dysfunction highlighting pathogenetic mechanisms and clinical relevance. Risk assessment strategies for angina with "normal" coronary angiography related vascular dysfunction are discussed by R. Bugiardini R et al. in PLoS Medicine (2007 Feb;4). In addition, Nucleus members are preparing articles on approaches to assess the Integrity of the coronary microcirculation in vivo and on the rationale to study the coronary microcirculation in patients with coronary artery disease.