[Influenza A virus infection, a precipitating factor for the major heart attack (author's transl)]

A report on 5 men aged from 53 to 75 years whose clinical symptoms were characterized by a major attack. There was a striking temporal relationship between the onset of this and an influenza infection which, in these 5 patients with chronic heart diseases led to a severe, and in the youngest patient, even to a fatal course. In an acute heart attack it seems rational to take into consideration an acute influenza virus infection as a precipitating factor in existing chronic heart disease and to institute virological studies.