[Coronary insufficiency caused by spasm with arteries injured slightly or not at all (31 cases)]

An epidemiological and clinical study was carried out on 31 patients with spasm of normal coronary arteries. The series comprised 24 males and 7 females aged 30 to 68 years (mean age: 48 years) with isolated resting chest pain (61 p. 100) or with resting and effort chest pains (39 p. 100). Their cardiovascular risk factors were compared to 735 unselected patients with coronary insufficiency undergoing coronary coronary angiography. Abnormalities of lipid metabolism (45 p. 100) and obesity (14 p. 100) were less common but there was a higher incidence of smoking (74 p. 100 compared to 48 p. 100). Sixteen patients had a psychological test: repressed aggressivity and severe anxiety were found in all patients, a state of separation coincided wtih the onset of the illness in 10 of the 16 patients. On admission, 13 patients presented with attacks of Prinzmetal variant angina, with myocardial infarction in 2 cases. Eighteen patients had non-invalidating angina with sporadic attacks. Coronary angiography was normal in 8 patients and showed lesions with less than 50 p. 100 narrowing in the other 23 patients. Mitral valve prolapse was found on left ventriculography in four patients. Exercise electrocardiography was positive in 7 out of 20 patients, and notably in those who had not had effort angina. All patients were treated with calcium antagonist drugs (25 Nifedipine, 6 Diltiazem), the efficacity of which was tested in 20 patients with a control ergometrine test. Thirty patients were followed up for 6 to 46 months (mean: 15 months). The exercise stress tests were repeated in the 7 patients with positive results before treatment and the results were negative in all cases. Twenty three patients were completely pain free or significantly improved, although 25 p. 100 of control tests remained positive (4/16). Six patients continued to have as much chest pain, and three had positive control tests. One patient with a negative control test developed acute myocardial infarction six months later in the territory of the spasm: during hospitalisation the ergometrine test became positive again.