Significance of Electrocardiographic Changes in Acute Transient Myocardial Ischemia

The significance of different electrocardiographic alterations in relation to myocardial ischemia, derives normally from studies performed in animals, where it is possible, during the experimental setting, to correlate directly the entity of ischemia with the observed electrocardiographic variations. The information obtained in this way has been used in the clinical setting and also has been compared with the data obtained from the follow up of these patients and eventually from autoptic examinations. Moreover in recent years techniques have became available which allow to study more accurately and precisely, in patients and in animals, the distribution of myocardial blood flow, the myocardial contractility and the anatomy of the coronary vascular bed. More recently the possibility to monitorize the electrocardiogram of ambulatory patients for long periods of time has given rise to new questions that in part are still open to discussion. Object of this report will be to review the data in the literature on the correlation of the different electrocardiographic changes to acute transient myocardial ischemia, in patients and animals with particular reference to the data obtained in ambulatory patients.