Search

Coronary artery spasm plays an important role in ischemic heart disease, particularly variant angina. We report the case of a 59-year-old man who developed severe diffuse coronary artery spasm 11 months after he received a heart transplant. The spasm was reversed by a single dose of sublingual nitroglycerin; however, the patient died 9 days later of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. Postmortem examination of this patient's heart revealed accelerated arteriosclerosis, with a prominent diffuse lymphocytic endothelialitis in the coronary arteries. The lymphocytic endothelialitis was characterized by the presence of numerous T lymphocytes and macrophages in the subendothelial space and by histologic changes suggesting injury to the endothelial cells. Although an association does not prove a causal relationship, the findings of accelerated arteriosclerosis and lymphocytic endothelialitis in a patient with coronary artery spasm suggests that these processes may be etiologically linked.

In this study the laminar localization of binding sites for the muscarinic radioligand [3H]3-quinuclidinylbenzilate was studied in somatosensory cortex of infant rat. Using light autoradiographic techniques, [3H]QNB was found to be concentrated in layer IV. Atropine-pretreated pups showed evenly dispersed, nonspecific binding in all layers. We conclude that cholinergic muscarinic receptors are concentrated in layer IV of infant rat somatosensory cortex. It is also in this lamina that an acetylcholinesterase-rich pathway terminates.