Subendocardial infarction; report of six cases and critical survey of the literature.

In the ordinary evolution of an acute myocardial infarct the electrocardiogram shows T wave (ischemia), RS-T segment ("current of injury") and QRS (death of muscle) changes. This paper presents a special group of cases of infarction in which only T wave and RS-T segment changes developed even when patients were observed over a considerable period. Therefore, the curves as such could not be considered diagnostic of myocardial infarction. The authors here describe a unique and intriguing group of cases of fatal myocardial infarction with electrocardiograms resembling those seen in stress tests for coronary insufficiency and showing rimlike subendocardial infarcts at postmortem.