Word: spasmed
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...Spasm causes heart attack
What caused the attacks? A growing number of cardiac specialists now agree on the probable villain in these and thousands of other heart attacks: coronary artery spasm, a sudden and transient constriction of a blood vessel. Lasting from 30 seconds to many minutes, the spasm effectively blocks a vessel and keeps oxygen from reaching the heart...
...notion of coronary spasm dates back at least to the turn of the century. But there was no proof, and spasm remained simply a theory, overshadowed by mounting evidence that atherosclerotic disease was a major cause of cardiac attacks. Then, in 1970, doctors got "the first eyeball look at an episode of coronary spasm." At the University of California in Los Angeles, Cardiologist Albert Kattus and his team were doing a coronary bypass operation on a woman when suddenly one of the vessels began to constrict. As that happened, Kattus recalls, "we could feel that her coronary artery was tough...
...Today spasm is one of the most active areas of medical research. Last week, in Anaheim, Calif., at a meeting of the American Heart Association, experts discussed the newest findings. Two of their more intriguing speculations...
...Coronary spasm may explain the infrequent incidents of chest pain and heart attack in premenopausal women, who rarely develop atherosclerosis. The spasm may cause blood to flow more slowly, thus allowing blood platelets to clump, clot and seal off the pathway...