Ischemic myocardial disease as an example of a thrombotic event. A historical note

The definition of myocardial ischemia as a clinical entity of thrombotic etiology was established in 1912 by James Herrick. His proposal was based on the work of William Heberden, who in 1772 defined the clinical profile of angina pectoris, and the observations of Edward Jenner about a century later on intracoronary thrombosis in patients who had died with such symptoms. On the basis of these results, Jenner and Caleb Parry proposed that the main cause of angina were alterations in the coronary arteries, while Marshall Hall, in 1842, attributed sudden death in these patients to interruption of the coronary circulation. The discovery of a common cause for angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, inducing a reduction or interruption of oxygen supply to myocardial tissue, the atherosclerotic etiology of intracoronary lesions, and the importance of plaque fissuring in the sudden formation of intracoronary thrombi, were successive milestones in our understanding in the 20th century, the culmination of the process of meticulous observation begun many years before.