SUMMARY We established the incidence of coronary artery spasm provoked by 0.4 mg of methergine in 1089 consecutive patients undergoing coronary angiography. The test was performed after routine coronary arteriography. Subjects included patients with angina, both typical and atypical, patients who had recently had myocardial infarction and patients with either valvular disease or congestive cardiomyopathy. Patients with spontaneous spasm, left main narrowing or severe three-vessel disease were excluded. One hundred thirty-four patients experienced focal spasm. Focal spasm was uncommon in patients with atypical precordial pain (1.2%), angina of effort (4.3%), valvular disease (1.95%) or cardiomyopathy (0%). It occurred most often in patients with angina at rest and less often in patients with angina both at rest and induced by exercise. Spasm was provoked in 20% of patients with recent transmural infarction, but in only 6.2% of patients studied later after infarction. Spasm was superimposed on fixed atherosclerotic lesions in 60% of the patients. No serious complications were encountered.Although the patients who underwent provocation tests in this study are not representative of all patients with coronary artery disease, spasm occurred in 20% of patients who experienced a coronary event and in 15% of patients who complained of chest pain.

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Provocative tests for coronary spasm were performed in a group of 131 patients (124 men and 7 women) with recent (less than 6 weeks) transmural myocardial infarction. Coronary arteriography was performed 27 +/- 9 days after the onset of the infarction. The provocative test was performed using a single IV bolus of 0.4 mg of ergometrine. Aortic pressure, ECG and arteriograms of the two coronary vessels were repeated 3 and 5 min later. Provoked spasm was observed in 27 (21%) of the patients. In 13 (48%) the coronary spasm occurred in a vessel presumed to be responsible for the myocardial infarction, while it was observed in coronary artery unrelated to the area of the infarct in 14 (52% of the cases with spasm). Thus, this study demonstrates a high degree of reactivity of the coronary tree of patients with recent transmural myocardial infarction suggesting the likelihood of a role for spasm in the infarction process and offering some explanation for subsequent recurrent ischemic events.

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