Forty patients with overt pulmonary edema secondary to ischemic heart disease were treated in the emergency room with iv ouabain and furosemide; 20 patients in Group A received sublingual nifedipine before undergoing early tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation with 100% FiO2 during 15 min. and then 50% FiO2; 20 patients in Group B received iv aminophylline, rotating tourniquets and IPPB by mask with 60% FiO2. All patients in Group A were extubated after 66 +/- 10.8 min. in the emergency room; 7 in Group B improved but 13 had to undergo tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation. Upon arrival at the ICCU all had a Swan-Ganz catheter installed and received comparable therapy for ischemic heart disease. Statistically significant differences in favor of patients in Group A as compared to the 7 improved in B were seen in heart rate, arrhythmias, diastolic blood pressure, mean and wedge pulmonary pressures, systemic resistances, arterial pH and PaO2; when compared to the 13 patients undergoing late tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation, parameters were more or less similar but improvement appeared later and extubation took place after 1.94 +/- 1.24 days (P less than 0.05). Three patients in Group B died in the emergency room, 3 in Group A and 4 in B died in the ICCU (P less than 0.01). Early tracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation in patients with overt pulmonary edema secondary to ischemic heart disease produce better results due to early improvement in pulmonary and systemic hemodynamics and should be considered in all such patients arriving at the emergency room.