Jogging and Coronary Artery Disease

Jogging, running, and other forms of organized exercise are being increasingly popularized to ensure or regain good health, and there is a certain amount of experimental and investigational data to support the notion. 1 Nevertheless two reports in this issue indicate that serious cardiac disorders may occur in the course of such exercise. Cantwell and Fletcher (p 130) describe two subjects, one of whom experienced myocardial infarction during jogging; the other collapsed with fixed pupils and absent pulses during a running exercise but was resuscitated. In neither case was the exercise under organized medical supervision. A third case is reported by Pyfer and Doane (p 101): during simple calisthenics, and under direct medical supervision, the subject fell to the floor with cardiac stand-still and was revived with a defibrillator which was already at hand. In all three cases, personal or family history suggested susceptibility to coronary artery disease. Such events