Does nitroglycerine improve cardiac output and pressures in the lesser circulation in patients with coronary heart disease and a normal-sized heart?
This study aims to provide early physiological evidence on the haemodynamic changes during anginal pain and the effects of nitroglycerine in patients with coronary heart disease.
It is known from previous investigations (Lewis et al. 1953) that patients with coronary heart disease, previous myocardial infarction, and an enlarged heart may show the usual signs of left ventricular failure with increased pulmonary vascular pressures and a tendency to reduced cardiac output. To our knowledge, no systematic investigations of cardiac output and pressures in the lesser circulation have been made in patients with coronary heart disease and a normal-sized heart, with anginal pain as the main symptom. Nor have any observations been published from the same patients when free from pain and when complaining of pain, either spontaneous or induced by exercise.
Müller et al. (Tue,) studied this question.