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Spasm of coronary arteries can cause chest pain indistinguishable from classic angina pectoris in patients without atherosclerosis of these vessels or recognizable heart disease. Associated electrocardiographic changes usually correspond to the coronary artery affected and disappear when the attack of pain ends. Sublingual nitrates are excellent agents for the control of the episodic anginal symptoms. There have been scattered reports of myocardial infarction occurring in patients with normal coronary arteries; a role of arterial spasm in these cases in speculative.

Short-term results of aggressive surgical management were compared with results of medical management in forty-three patients with preinfarction angina admitted to the coronary-care unit (CCU) over an 18 month period. These patients were selected from 1,609 consecutive admissions to the CCU because they met strict criteria for preinfarction angina: severe chest pain at rest, ST-segment elevation or depression during pain which subsided rapidly after cessation of pain, and normal serum enzymes (CPK, SGOT, and LDH). Twenty-three patients had coronary angiography, done with operating room and pump standby. One patient, who had total occlusion of the left main coronary artery, died during the study. Twenty-one of the remaining patients were considered surgical candidates, and were treated immediately after angiography with 1 to 3 vein bypass grafts. There was one late postoperative death and, of the 20 survivors, 2 had ECG evidence of acute myocardial infarction and one had mild angina at time of discharge. In contrast, of the 21 patients treated medically, 13 sustained acute MI, resulting in 8 instances of congestive heart failure and 4 cases of ventricular fibrillation. Four patients died in cardiogenic shock. With the use of rigid criteria, a small subgroup of patients with variant angina at high risk of developing AMI has been identified and categorized as having preinfarction angina. Our experience suggests that aggressive surgery immediately following coronary angiography offers a lower incidence of MI, morbidity, and death than does medical management.

The evaluation of angina pectoris in patients with idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis is difficult in those in the age group prone to coronary artery disease. Ten patients with angina pectoris, normal coronary angiograms and idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis were studied with thallium-201 myocardial imaging performed in conjunction with submaximal treadmill exercise testing. The resting electrocardiogram demonstrated left ventricular hypertrophy with S-T segment abnormalities in seven patients, thereby vitiating the further increase in S-T segment abnormalities that developed in these patients during exercise or in the postexercise period. Of the three patients with a normal resting electrocardiogram, one had significant exercise-induced S-T segment depression. Thallium-201 myocardial imaging revealed no significant perfusion defects in 9 of the 10 patients (90 percent). In one patient with severe left ventricular hypertrophy significant perfusion defects developed after exercise that were not present at rest. Stress thallium-201 myocardial perfusion imaging is a useful noninvasive technique that assists in ruling out the presence of significant coronary artery disease in patients with idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis.