Unstable angina pectoris (UAP) and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) sig­nify a critical moment of coronary artery disease. The choice of appropriate therapy depends on the estimated risk of adverse outcome. Risk assessment is made primarily on the basis of typical changes in the electrocardiogram and values of biochemical markers of car­diac muscle damage (troponine T and I, enzymes of cardiac muscle necrosis). Only a limited number of studies included clinical characteristics in the risk estimates of such patients, but none of these studies considered clinical presentation during stenocardia. The aim of our research was to evaluate the prognostic value of clinical characteristics during stenocardia. The clinical presentation of a patient with UAP/NSTEMI during stenocardia predicts the adverse outcome of the disease during in-hospital treatment. A retrospective analysis was performed on patients with an admission diagnosis of UAP/NSTEMI who were admitted to the Center for Intensive Internal Medicine between January 1996 and December 1999. The following parameters were selected for describing the patient’s clinical presentation: age, dura­tion of stenocardia, systolic blood pressure and heart rate during stenocardia. The connection of these characteristics with an adverse outcome of the illness (death, acute myocardial infarc­tion, urgent revascularization procedure) up until discharge from the hospital was analyzed using analysis of variance and multiple logistic regression. One hundred ninety-two patients, aged 40-96, were included. Seven (3.6%) of the patients died, 16 (8.3%) suffered a myocar­dial infarction, and 82 (42.7%) underwent urgent revascularization. Death of the patients before discharge from the hospital was significantly correlated with their systolic blood pressure (p = 0.01) and heart rate (p < 0.001) during stenocardia. All the selected clinical parameters failed to show any statistically relevant correlation with myocardial infarction or urgent revas­cularization procedure. Low systolic blood pressure and elevated heart rate during stenocardia predict a higher probability of death before discharge from the hospital. Any decision in favor of more invasive therapy should, in addition to the established criteria, therefore consider systolic blood pressure and heart rate during stenocardia.