Acute coronary thrombus formation after stress testing following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. A case report.
Successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) was performed on a 37-year-old white man with an isolated 95% right coronary artery stenosis who initially presented with type II unstable angina. Submaximal treadmill stress testing was not carried out before PTCA, but testing 3 days after PTCA was strongly positive without accompanying symptoms of myocardial ischaemia. Some 30 minutes after this test the patient experienced severe precordial pain with features of a hyperacute transmural inferior myocardial infarction. Immediate coronary arteriography delineated fresh thrombus related to the previous PTCA site. Intracoronary thrombolysis with streptokinase was successful, revealing an underlying severe stenosis at the PTCA site. PTCA was not repeated, nor was emergency coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) performed. This is the second such case documented in the literature; the first patient failed to respond to intracoronary thrombolysis with streptokinase and was submitted to emergency CABG. The possible underlying pathophysiological mechanisms are discussed. We believe that the late thrombus formation was directly related to submaximal stress testing after successful PTCA, and recommend that testing to assess the efficacy of PTCA be deferred until at least 1 month after the procedure to allow for completion of the healing process.
Przybojewski
J Z
JZ
Weich
H F
HF
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000789:Angina, Unstable / Q000628:therapy; D000800:Angioplasty, Balloon; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology*; D005080:Exercise Test / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male