THE USE OF EPINEPHRINE AS A DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR ANGINA PECTORIS

Abstract

Some years ago one of us (S. A. L.) was called to see a patient with angina pectoris who was at that time experiencing a severe attack of bronchial asthma. Epinephrine, 0.5 cc, was administered subcutaneously, and after several minutes the patient developed an attack of severe anginal pain. Some time later, O'Hare,¹in studying the effect of various drugs on arterial hypertension, observed that epinephrine produced a seizure of typical anginal pain in a patient with angina pectoris. It therefore seemed desirable to us to investigate the effect of epinephrine on patients with angina pectoris, for if all such patients should react to the drug by developing typical pain, it would follow that this knowledge might be applied for diagnostic purposes. It is not inferred that if this test is valid it need be tried in cases in which the diagnosis is certain, for then one would only be