[Effect of nitroglycerine in acute myocardial infarction: I: Sublingual nitroglycerine in the treatment of left-heart failure and pulmonary oedema (author's transl)].

In 15 patients with left ventricular failure, ten with recent myocardial infarction and five with old infarct a highly significant fall in pulmonary-artery pressure occurred within 3-5 minutes of sublingual administration of nitroglycerine, 0.8 and 1.6 mg. End-diastolic pulmonary-artery pressure, as an expression of left ventricular filling pressure, fell from 25 plus or minus 8 to 17 plus or minus 8 mm Hg (P smaller than 0.001). In some patients cardiac output rose markedly, while arterial blood pressure fell only slightly (not statistically significant). In six patients with pulmonary oedema there was a decrease in dyspnoea within a few minutes. Left-ventricular filling pressure fell markedly in all cases, in one patient from 50 to 27 mm Hg. This study indicates that nitroglycerine can be effective in the treatment of left-ventricular failure of various causes.