Differences in presentation and management of Stable Angina fro West in Europe: A comparison between Poland and the UK ☆ Caroline Ann Daly a, ⁎ , Janina Stepinska b , Tomasz Deptuch b , Witold Ruzyllo b , Kevin Fox c , Anselm Gitt d , Michal Tendera e , Kim Fox f On behalf of the Euro Heart Survey investigators a Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney St. London SW3 6NP, UK b National Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland c Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust at Charing Coss Hospital, London, UK d Herzzentrum Ludwigshafen, Institut für Herzinfarktforschung, Ludwigshafen, Germany e Silesian School of Medicine, Katowice, Poland f Royal Brompton Hospital, Sydney St. London SW3 6NP, UK Received 9 December 2006; accepted 3 January 2007 Available online 17 May 2007 Abstract Aims: Variations in the resources, stability and priorities of health care systems conceivably affect their capacity to implement he reform and ensure an evidence based approach to health care. Such variation may partially account for differences in card rates between former communist states in Central Europe and Western European countries, but specific data on this subje of this study was to compare the presentation of stable angina to cardiology services in Poland vs. the United Kingdom, th the condition in relation to existing European guidelines and clinical outcome. Methods and results: Data was collected as part of a prospective observational cohortstudy of stable angina in Europe. Information was recorded on referral patterns, clinicalpresentation and the use of pharmacological therapies, investigations, revascularisation and cardiovascular events during 1 year of follow up. A totalof 571 patients with stable angina were enrolled in Poland and 319 in the U Patients presenting to cardiology services in Poland were less likely to be referred by a primary care physician, younger, and had more adverse clinical risk predictors at presentation. Non-invasive investigation and coronary angiography were performed less frequent Poland, butwaiting times for invasive assessment were shorter. European guidelines with regard to the use of evidence based seconda preventative medical therapy were applied widely by cardiologists in both countries. No differences were observed in rate events. Conclusions: The use of evidence based pharmacological therapy was equally high in both countries, but guidelines regard were less completely adhered to in Poland, where invasive assessment and subsequent management was prompt butonly performed in a highly selected proportion of the population with stable angina. © 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Stable angina; Geographical variation; Health care provision; Revascularisation rates 1. Introduction Data collated by the World Health Organization [1] de- monstrates a wide variation in cardiovascular mortality rat between different regions and countries in Europe. There has been a steady reduction in age and gender standardis International Journal of Cardiology 125 (2008) 311 – 318 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijcard ☆ CD, KF, RW, AG were members of the expert committee for the Euro Heart Survey of StableAngina. KF and JS were national co-ordinators for the UK and Poland respectively. CD wrote the first draft, and all other authors commented on this and subsequent drafts of the manuscript. KF is guarantor. ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 207 3518289; fax: +44 207 3518643. E-mail address: c.daly@rbh.nthames.nhs.uk (C.A. Daly). 0167-5273/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2007.01.103