Recurrent electromechanical dissociation due to severe underlying coronary heart disease.

Recurrent electromechanical dissociation, eventually fatal, presented as Stokes-Adams-like syncope in a patient with severe underlying coronary heart disease. Mechanical function was probably suppressed because of myocardial ischemia due to recent occlusion of the proximal right main coronary artery; the left main coronary artery had been occluded previously. Spasm of the proximal right coronary artery may have accounted for his recurrent attacks of pain and syncope. It is suggested that this clinical picture has a grave prognosis, demanding urgent therapeutic measures. While these measures are likely to be more hazardous than usual, the grave prognosis and potential for therapeutic success make them well worth the risk.