To assess the diagnostic standard of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in women under 55 years (i.e. urostly working women) in clinical practice the authors made a retrospective analysis of a group of 171 women referred for coronarographic examination to their department in 19982000. All women in the analyzed group had coronary angiography, the results of which confirmed the correct diagnosis deserving some revascularization procedure only in one third of the examined women. Insignificant affection of the coronary circulation by atherosclerosis or another disease was revealed in 13% of the women. As more than half the examined women had a normal coronarographic finding, the authors draw attention to the difficulty of diagnosis and possibly to the fact tkat less attention than usually is devoted to it than in field practice.

        Key words: ischaemic heart disease- coronarography- syndom X-coronary reserve -hormonal activity.