Clinical Evaluation of Anti-anginal Drugs with Particular Reference to Benziodarone, a New Coronary Vasodilator.

ALTHOUGH many long-acting coronary vasodilators have been introduced for the prophylactic treatment of angina pectoris few have survived a controlled objective study in which the main criterion of effectiveness is an improvement in the degree of myocardial ischoemia and not solely an alteration in the frequency or severity of anginal attacks. A new coronary vasodilator, benziodarone (Cardivix), a benzfuran derivative, has been found experimentally to produce a marked increase in coronary blood flow in healthy dogs (Charlier, 1959), and has also been claimed to produce considerable improvement clinically in anginal patients (Gillott, I959). Gillott's study was based on an uncontrolled and subjective evaluation of the action of benziodarone. Assessment of any anti-anginal drug, however, must take into consideration the suggestibility of anginal patients, the limitations of subjective data provided by the patients themselves, and the lack of any direct relationship between the development and severity of anginal pain and the degree of coronary insufficiency (Russek, Zohman and Dorset, 1955). It is with these considerations in mind that it was decided to carry out a controlled doubleblind and objective evaluation of the use of benziodarone in the treatment of angina pectoris.