The Journal of family practice
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Coronary arterial spasm has been postulated to be a cause of myocardial ischemia for over 100 years. It was not until the work of Prinzmetal et al in 1959, however, that major clinical attention and research began to be addressed to the role of vasospasm in the manifestations of ischemic heart disease. ⋯ Symptomatic arrhythmias, including sinus bradycardia, heart block, and ventricular tachyarrhythmias, have been documented to complicate coronary vasospasm. Given the potential importance of coronary arterial spasm in so many different ischemic heart disease syndromes, the development of therapeutic agents that may prevent spasm has obvious clinical importance.