Variant angina induced by alcohol ingestion.

We gave alcohol to 15 patients with variant angina to induce the attacks at the hospital. Anginal attacks were repeatedly induced in seven of them. Although the time lag between alcohol ingestion and the attacks varied widely among patients, from 1.5 to 12 hours, it was fairly constant in each patient. We carefully examined the histories of 101 patients with variant angina to become familiar with the relationship between alcohol ingestion and the attacks of angina. Seventy-one patients took alcohol in their daily lives. Nineteen of the 71 patients (26.8%) who took alcohol had a definite relationship between alcohol ingestion and the attacks. We conclude that alcohol induces anginal attacks or coronary artery spasm in not a small number of patients with variant angina.