If the numerous therapeutic acquisitions of the past few years have enriched very different fields of human pathology, it does seem that coronary pathology has been given very special attention, as witness the wide variety of antianginal medications placed at the disposal of the medical profession. There are various explanations for this state of affairs, one of them probably being that the medica- tions successively proposed do not fully satisfy the practitioner and another that the total number of individuals suffering from the clinicaI manifestations of coronary heart disease offers, by its size, a vast profit potential for the pharma- ceuticaI industry. This field of applications opens up such prospects that it has encouraged a prolific amount of competition between various research laborato- ries, and it is no exaggeration to say that every major firm has its individuaI anti- anginaI drug in its therapeutic cataIogue.
A further factor has aIso contributed enormously to this proliferation of medi- cinal preparations intended for the treatment of angina pectoris: this is the rapid advance in our knowIedge of the physiopathoIogy of angina, which in turn has produced originaI concepts of pharmacological and biochemical research. As a result, there have emerged new substances whose action mechanisms have claimed to be best suited to the cardiovascular disorders responsible for cardiac pain.