Papers of the Week

Vasospastic angina (VA) is an important cause of chest pain and patients often have 3- to 6-month clusters of recurrent attacks, separated by relatively asymptomatic periods. During these episodes the resulting myocardial ischaemia can lead to clinical complications of different severity, including acute myocardial infarction, acute heart failure, and cardiogenic shock. The management of severe and recurrent VA attacks is challenging, and no specific recommendations exist in recent cardiologic guidelines on the pharmacological strategy (inotropic/vasopressor agents) to adopt for this acute clinical setting.