Comparison of AHA/ACC and ESC guidelines for the management of patients with stable coronary heart disease: same goal, unique perspectives

Currently, there are two updated guidelines (The 2023 AHA/ACC/ACCP/ASPC/NLA/PCNA and the 2024 European Society of Cardiology Guidelines) (1,2) dedicated to stable coronary artery disease (CAD), with different definitions.While the first defines chronic coronary disease, the latter employs a different terminology, chronic coronary syndromes, based on expanded pathophysiological concepts, including microcirculatory disease.Nonetheless, both are devoted to offering insights into the best patient management strategies available.Regarding diagnostic testing, both guidelines stress the importance of clinical and risk factor evaluation for the assessment of the likelihood of CAD, which will influence the choice of noninvasive tests-either anatomic or functional, along with specific patient characteristics that may affect the performance of each type of noninvasive test, as well as local expertise and test availability.