Digitalis in Acute Myocardial Infarction

A DECADE ago the general subject of cardiogenic shock was reviewed in this journal.† The principal interest in that effort centered around "shock" in myocardial infarction. The evidence available was interpreted as indicating that this shocklike state was mainly, if not wholly, due to failure of the left ventricle and that its presence or absence depended on the quantity and quality of uninfarcted myocardium. Whatever has transpired since that time, both from personal experience and from medical reports, has served to strengthen, rather than to alter, this view.Obviously, the quantity of remaining muscle is largely beyond medical control, although . . .