Abdominal angina is a rare condition caused by narrowed blood vessels due to plaque buildup, with the highest incidence among smokers. Symptoms include pain after eating, leading to weight loss. Diagnosis involves looking for narrowed blood vessels and treatment includes healthy eating habits and medication.
Abdominal angina sounds very similar to the condition angina pectoris, which affects the heart, causing great pain when blood vessels don’t supply enough blood to the heart. The conditions are not the same, although in both cases the pain tends to be caused by an insufficient blood supply. With abdominal angina, pain occurs in the abdomen and arises from insufficient blood supply to its parts.
This tends to be a relatively rare condition, and statistics are lacking on its rate of occurrence in the general population. Like angina pectoris, abdominal angina is often caused by atherosclerosis or narrowed blood vessels due to plaque buildup. The narrowing is most evident in those blood vessels supplying the abdomen and hence the symptoms of the condition occur. The disease is known to have the highest incidence among people who smoke cigarettes, suggesting that those who smoke have the greatest risk factor for developing this condition.
The symptoms of abdominal angina tend to be very noticeable. Pain episodes usually occur within an hour after people have eaten, often within 10 to 20 minutes of eating a meal. People will then feel uncomfortable with cramping in the abdomen, usually in the mid-region or above. This pain can take many hours to resolve as the digestive system struggles to digest food with reduced blood capacity.
What occurs because of this symptom is that people start to eat less, because the pain associated with eating reinforces it negatively. Those people with abdominal angina who haven’t seen a doctor to get a diagnosis for some time often have lost some weight because they continue to eat less in hopes of avoiding pain. Either way, the abdomen will still strain in the absence of an adequate blood supply.
The diagnosis of abdominal angina is when a person has these symptoms. Doctors will look for narrowed blood vessels or blood vessel occlusions that are creating the problem and often choose to perform catheterization/angioplasty to open closed or closing vessels. Sometimes open surgeries are needed instead, but this is less common.
Initial treatment to address faulty blood vessels may be just the beginning. It is important to make sure that a person has healthy eating habits, especially to regain weight. These models must be healthy because the presence of atherosclerosis suggests high cholesterol levels and past cholesterol accumulation. Indeed, people with abdominal angina are usually thoroughly examined for the presence of heart disease elsewhere, and some may need close follow-up by a cardiologist. Medication may be needed to support blood vessel and heart health, and smoking cessation would be highly encouraged.
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