Stable angina


Stable angina is chest pain or discomfort that most often occurs with activity or emotional stress. Angina is due to poor blood flow through the blood vessels in the heart.


Your heart muscle needs a constant supply of oxygen. The coronary arteries carry oxygen-rich blood to the heart.

When the heart muscle has to work harder, it needs more oxygen. Symptoms of angina occur when blood supply to heart muscle is reduced. This happens when the coronary arteries are narrowed or blocked by atherosclerosis or by a blood clot.

The most common cause of angina is coronary artery disease. Angina pectoris is the medical term for this type of chest pain.

Stable angina is less serious than unstable angina, but it can be very painful or uncomfortable.

There are many risk factors for coronary artery disease. Some include:

Anything that makes the heart muscle need more oxygen or reduces the amount of oxygen it receives can cause an angina attack in someone with heart disease, including:

Other causes of angina include:


Symptoms of stable angina are most often predictable. This means that the same amount of exercise or activity may cause your angina to occur. Your angina should improve or go away when you stop or slow down the exercise.

The most common symptom is chest pain that occurs behind the breastbone or slightly to the left of it. The pain of stable angina most often begins slowly and gets worse over the next few minutes before going away.

Typically, the chest pain feels like tightness, heavy pressure, squeezing, or a crushing feeling. It may spread to the:

Some people say the pain feels like gas or indigestion.

Less common symptoms of angina may include:

Pain from stable angina:

Angina attacks can occur at any time during the day. Often, they occur between 6 a.m. and noon.

Exams and Tests

Your health care provider will examine you and check your blood pressure. Tests that may be done include:


Treatment for angina may include:

If you have angina, you and your provider will develop a daily treatment plan. This plan should include:


You may need to take one or more medicines to treat blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol levels. Follow your provider's directions closely to help prevent your angina from getting worse.

Nitroglycerin pills or spray may be used to stop chest pain.

Anti-clotting drugs such as aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix), ticagrelor (Brilinta) or prasugrel (Effient) can help prevent blood clots from forming in your arteries, and reduce the risk of heart attack. Ask your provider if you should be taking these medicines.

You may need to take more medicines to help prevent you from having angina. These include:

NEVER STOP TAKING ANY OF THESE DRUGS ON YOUR OWN. Always talk to your provider first. Stopping these drugs suddenly can make your angina worse or cause a heart attack. This is especially true for anti-clotting drugs (aspirin, clopidogrel, ticagrelor and prasugrel).

Your provider may recommend a cardiac rehabilitation program to help improve your heart’s fitness.


Some people will be able to control angina with medicines and not need surgery. Others will need a procedure called angioplasty and stent placement (also called percutaneous coronary intervention) to open blocked or narrowed arteries that supply blood to the heart.

Blockages that cannot be treated with angioplasty may need heart bypass surgery to redirect blood flow around the narrowed or blocked blood vessels.

Outlook (Prognosis)

Stable angina most often improves when taking medicines.

When to Contact a Medical Professional

Get medical help right away if you have new, unexplained chest pain or pressure. If you have had angina before, call your provider.

Call 911 if your angina pain:

Call your provider if:

Get medical help right away if a person with angina loses consciousness (passes out).



Some risk factors for heart disease you cannot change, but some you can. Changing the risk factors that you can control will help you live a longer, healthier life.

Review Date: 2/22/2018
