What’s New in the 2019 Esc Guidelines on Chronic Coronary Syndromes?

The European Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Coronary Syndromes (CCS) were published in 2019 with a different title than the previous 2013 Guidelines that referred to “chronic stable coronary heart disease”, underlining the dynamic nature of the atherosclerotic process. The main changes in these guidelines refer to the most frequent clinical presentations of CCS, to the assessment of the pretest probability of atherosclerotic coronary heart disease with the recommendation to include cardiovascular risk factors and other factors, as well as the choice of invasive anatomical and/or functional diagnostic tests, invasive and/or non-invasive, depending on the probability of the existence of the disease.

Regarding the treatment, these guidelines underline the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the modalities for the implementation and the strategy of anti-ischemic drug treatment, antithrombotic therapy being more widely addressed. Recommendations for myocardial revascularization on top of drug treatment for symptoms control and for improving prognosis are less restrictive in these guidelines. The recommendations of the CCS guidelines are harmonized with the recommendations of the other European guidelines, especially with those on diabetes, prediabetes and cardiovascular diseases which were also published in 2019.