The Relation Between Myocardial Lesions and Coronary Artery Disease I. An Unselected Necropsy Study

The use of words that convey different meanings to different workers is bound to lead to con- fusion, and this is particularly likely when terms with a precise implication in one discipline are transferred to another. In no field has this been more striking than in the study of cardiac and arterial disease, where terms like thrombosis, occlusion, infarction, and ischlmia have been used loosely in necropsy studies, and have also been used as diagnostic labels in clinical medicine. The problem is serious enough when simple words are used, but all-embracing terms such as "ischaemic", "arteriosclerotic," and "degenerative" heart disease can be interpreted in so many ways as to make them virtually meaningless.