Coronary-Artery Spasm

OVER the past several years coronary-artery spasm, superimposed on either fixed arteriosclerotic coronary-artery disease or radiographically normal coronary arteries, has been shown clearly to be the cause of Prinzmetal's variant angina. More recently, some reports have attempted to incriminate coronary-artery spasm as a contributing factor to typical angina pectoris and myocardial infarction. Thus, coronary-artery spasm may have a far more important role in the pathogenesis of ischemic heart disease than was previously thought possible. Since substantial new information has become available from a variety of investigations during the past few years, it seems appropriate to review the role of Coronary.