[Normal coronary arteries and spontaneous precordial pain]

In 100 successive patients with normal coronary arteriography performed for spontaneous precordial chest pain, a Methergine test was performed to induce coronary artery spasm, in addition to esophageal manometry, and an angiographic and echocardiographic study of the left ventricle. These tests were all normal in 39 patients, whereas the remaining 61 patients had pain due to coronary artery spasm (14 times), a non-coronary artery cardiopathy (16 times) (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or mitral valve prolapse), or esophageal dyskinesia (35 times). The latter was an isolated finding 29 times, was associated 3 times with coronary artery spasm, and 3 times with non-coronary artery cardiopathy.