The clinical features of the course of coronary artery disease in patients with schizophrenia

Thirty-nine patients suffering from coronary artery disease (CAD) and schizophrenia (main group) and 32 mentally healthy CAD patients (control group) were included in the study. Cardiological examination including complaint and anamnesis analysis, ECG, EchoCG, stress-EchoCG with dobutamine, 24-hour Holter ECG monitoring was performed; coronaroangiography was carried out in 15 patients. Acute circulatory insufficiency, early post-infarction stenocardia, and chronic left ventricular aneurism were found to be more frequent in patients with schizophrenia vs. controls. Certain differences in CAD risk factors between the groups were revealed. Hyperlipidemia and type 2 diabetes were found in 14 (36%) and 1 (3%) patients in the main group vs. 20 (62%) and 6 (19%) patients in the control group (p = 0.03; p = 0.04), respectively. Glucose intolerance was found in no schizophrenia patients, while it was revealed in 5 (16%) controls (p = 0.02). Patients with schizophrenia sought medical aid later than controls. The number of main group patients who sought medical aid during the first hour, the first 4 hours, the first 4 to 12 hours, or the first 12 to 24 hours was 2 (3%), 3 (5%), 16 (27%), and 38 (64%), respectively; in the control groups these numbers were 12 (30%), 21 (54%), 3 (8%), and 3 (8%), respectively (p < 0.001, p < 0.001, p = 0.02, p < 0.001, respectively).