Microvascular angina is a rare condition in which myocardial ischemia is caused by microvascular dysfunction without any abnormalities of the epicardial coronary arteries. In clinical practice, it is difficult to diagnose because the microvascular alterations cannot be detected by conventional angiography. Herein we present a rare case of a 67-year-old woman with unstable angina pectoris in whom considerably slow coronary flow was induced by the acetylcholine provocation test with mild epicardial arterial spasm, suggesting the presence of microvascular spasm. Moreover, we show that β-methyl-p-[(123)I]-iodophenyl-pentadecanoic ((123)I-BMIPP) single-photon emission computed tomography imaging is useful for proving myocardial ischemia.
Keywords: 123I-BMIPP myocardial scintigraphy; Intracoronary acetylcholine provocation test; Microvascular angina; Slow flow.