assessment of the efficacy of propranolol and diltiazem on the intensity, duration and periods of pain in the angina patients referred to the heart clinic of the shahrekored university of medical sciences

assessment of the efficacy of propranolol and diltiazem on the intensity, duration and periods of pain in the angina patients referred to the heart clinic of the shahrekored university of medical sciences khaledi a1, elahei n2,moradi m3, salehi sh4* received: 7 sep , 2013 accepted: 16 nov , 2013 abstract background & aims: ischemic heart disease is one of the most common, chronic and deadly diseases in the world. ischemic heart disease treatment consists of ensuring the patient, its identification, eliminating risk factors, lifestyle changes and drug therapy. the study tries to compare the efficacy of propranolol and diltiazem on the intensity, duration and periods of pain in the angina patients referred to the heart clinic of shahrekored university of medical sciences. materials & methods: in a cross sectional study 60 patients with stable angina were selected with convenience sampling. initially after receiving exercise testing, and completing the questionnaire to determine angina class, the patients were randomly divided into a and b groups by using the questionnaire and related chart recording of physiological variables. demographic characteristics, types of drugs, the number of angina attacks and the results of the stress test were registered. the patients were treated with 20 mg propranolol every 8 hours daily, and with 30 mg diltiazem for 6 weeks, and they were considered as group a, and group b respectively. the patients were examined by a cardiologist for 6 weeks. inclusion criteria to the survey were typical angina pain, positive exercise test, patient satisfaction, and dwelling in the provincial capital. exclusion criteria were negative exercise test, treated with cardiac drugs, drug complications, diabetes, severe ischemic attacks, and cutting off medication. hospitalization data were recorded by a questionnaire, and the collected papers were analyzed by using spss statistical software. results: the results showed that from the 60 stable angina patients in both groups of a, and b, 68.3 % were male, and 31.7 % were females. the most abundant minor pain, was angina pain, with 50% , and the least pain, was terrified angina pain with 10%. the most abundant angina class was class 2 with 80%, and lowest was class 3 with 8.3%. there was a significant differences between the two groups of treatment concerning the drug’s effectiveness, number of attacks of pain, and the effect of pain. fisher's exact test indicated that there was a significant difference between negative exercise test in the two groups. conclusion: although both ayndral and diltiazem had an effective role on the quality of pain, number of attacks, period of pain in patients with stable angina, but this effect was more effective in diltiazem group. more investigations with bigger sample size are needed. key words: stable angina, propranolol, diltiazem, pain address: nursing and midwifery faculty, ahvaz jundishapur university of medical sciences, ahvaz, iran, tel: (+98)9131835118 email: [email protected]