Cortisone in Stokes-Adams Disease Secondary to Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

PRINZMETAL and Kennamer¹ first reported on the use of ACTH in 1954 to correct complete heart block secondary to myocardial infarction. They believed that, in incomplete septal infarction or in infarctions near the septum, the interference with atrioventricular conduction that often culminates in complete heart block may be due in many cases not to destruction but only to inflammation of the atrioventricular node and the specialized conductive tissue in the septum. If this is true, anything that reduces inflammation in body tissues should help re-establish normal conduction in these cases. The anti-inflammatory action of hormones elaborated by the adrenal cortex . . .