[The stunned myocardium. A new pathological entity]

A 70 years old woman presented with clinical, electrical and haemodynamic evidence of myocardial infarction. The course of the disease was unusual in that enzyme levels were not increased and the electrocardiogram and ventricular kinetics returned to normal 25 days after the infarction. This syndrome was typical of electrical and mechanical myocardial stunning. The physiopathological theories behind this post-ischaemic transient myocardial dysfunction syndrome and its practical consequences are presented.