Coronary stenoses before and after acute myocardial infarction.

Abstract Complete coronary occlusion can be demonstrated during the early stages of almost all cases of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) but the sudden, often unheralded, onset of symptoms would suggest that preexisting stenoses may not have been critically severe.1,2 With the aim of assessing the severity of infarct-related coronary stenoses before AMI, we reviewed the records of all our patients who happened to have had coronary arteriography performed during a clinically stable phase of their disease before and after AMI.