"ACUTE INDIGESTION" IN RELATION TO CORONARY THROMBOSIS

Abstract

The term indigestion is an example of indefinite and inaccurate medical nomenclature not infrequently appearing in public print. Sudden collapse with acute abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting may occur with acute coronary obstruction, but underlying pathologic condition may be masked by severity and predominance of abdominal symptoms. Not infrequently precordial and ordinary anginal pain is entirely absent. In such instances one is confronted with possibility of acute surgical conditions in abdomen. In recent years surgeons 1 have called attention to the acute abdomen but have neglected to stress possibility of acute obstruction of coronary arteries causing abdominal symptoms which may be identical with intra-abdominal emergencies. Others 2 have noted acute abdominal symptoms in relation to thoracic disease but have not referred to coronary thrombosis. On other hand, writers on acute coronary obstruction have noted difficulty often presented in deciding