Coronary artery spasm usuafly reponds to sublingual nitroglycerin. This report describes four patients with variant angina and one patient with rest angina who had coronary spasm that was refractory to sublingual or i.v. nitroglycerin. In four patients, spasm occurred spontaneously and in one patient after 0.05 mg of ergonovine. In each case, 25-100 ,ug of intracoronary nitroglycerin promptly (...

A case of severe intractable angina pectoris with normal angiography is presented. Following video assisted thoracic sympathectomy the patient died of heart failure. Microvascular cardiac amyloidosis was diagnosed at the postmortem examination. This report alerts clinicians to this possible diagnosis when treating patients with severe angina when no cause is found and discusses the poor prognos...

OBJECT The purpose of this report was to examine the available literature to determine the safety and efficacy of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for the treatment of chronic pain of the trunk and limbs. METHODS The author identified 68 studies that fulfilled the efficacy inclusion/exclusion criteria, grouped on the basis of pain indication, with an overall population of 3679 patients. Fifty-on...

A 73 year old man was admitted with progressive dyspnoea. His past medical history included peripheral artery disease (intermittent claudication of lower extremities) and ischaemic heart disease (angina pectoris). Two months before renovascular hypertension was diagnosed after he presented severe hypertension and mild renal insuYciency (plasma creatinine concentration 150.3 μmol/l). Renal angio...

Six patients from a group of 39 who survived after treatment with the intraaortic balloon pump (lABP) had significant neurological deficits in one or both legs associated with the use of the lABP. The device was used in a group of 89 patients initially for cardiogenic shock but its use has been expanded for patients having the following conditions: preshock; severe congestive heart failure; ref...

A 79-year-old male with unstable angina, who had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), was treated with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). MDS causes refractory anemia accompanied by various degrees of granulocytopenia and thrombocytopenia. Pancytopenia caused by MDS may complicate patients with major infections and bleeding during cardiac surgery. There were very few patients with MDS who had u...

Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is minimally invasive and reversible therapy for treatment of severe, otherwise nonresponsive chronic pain. Such approach is relatively safe, with very few side-effects, not addictive, and provides enduring therapeutic response. A number of clinical studies support the efficacy of spinal cord stimulation in treating failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional...

Intra-aortic balloon pumps (IABP) are commonly used in the setting of an acute myocardial infarction that is complicated by cardiogenic shock or mechanical complications such as a ventricular septal defect or papillary muscle rupture. IABP has also been shown to be useful in patients with refractory and hemodynamically unstable ventricular arrhythmias and refractory post-myocardial infarction a...