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Summary Two further cases of myocardial infarction during pregnancy are reported. From the review of the literature of forty-three cases of myocardial infarction during pregnancy and labour, it appears that myocardial infarction in the last trimester and labour is frequently fatal. Short-term anticoagulant therapy to suppress any thrombo-embolic tendency is desirable. Termination of pregnancy is indicated for patients in cardiac failure or persistent angina. For patients who are well, either assisted vaginal delivery or Caesarean section are equally good.

Forty-three patients with acute myocardial infarction were treated with lignocaine after developing certain ventricular tachyarrhythmias.Eighteen patients received intravenous treatment: 75 mg as an intravenous bolus immediately followed by an infusion of 2 mg/min, and 25 per cent solution given into the lateral vastus muscle should be investigated for its clinical effect. With this amount of the drug, satisfactory blood levels were achieved from between io to I5 minutes after the injection for up to go to I20 minutes. In the present study intramuscularly administered lignocaine has been compared with intravenously administered lignocaine in patients with ventricular tachyarrhythmia complicating acute myocardial infarction. Subjects and methodsPatients admitted to the coronary care unit because of proven or suspected acute myocardial infarction were taken into the study if they developed ventricular tachyarrhythmia of one or more of the following types: i) _ 5 ventricular ectopic beats/min; 2) paired ventricular ectopic beats; 3) multifocal ventricular ectopic beats; 4) R on T ventricular ectopic beats; and 5) ventricular tachycardia defined as 3 or more ventricular ectopic beats in sequence.

1 Labetalol has been compared with propranolol in a double‐blind, double‐dummy study of 24 patients with mild or moderate essential hypertension. 2 Two patients were unable to tolerate propranolol and five labetalol, because of symptom side effects; this difference was not significant (P greater than 0.1). 3 On a self‐administered questionnaire, labetalol was associated with a greater number of side effects per patient than propranolol, but no individual side effect was significantly more common with either drug. 4 There was no difference in the number of spontaneously reported side effects between the two drugs. 5 Both drugs impaired pulmonary function, but propranolol caused a greater reduction than labetalol after 8 weeks of treatment. 6 We conclude that labetalol and propranolol are similarly effective and acceptable to the patient.