Isolated myocardial abscess causing coronary artery rupture and fatal hemopericardium.
We report a rare case of cardiac tamponade caused by hemopericardium secondary to erosion and rupture of a coronary artery by an adjacent solitary myocardial abscess. The resulting tamponade led to the sudden death of this 46-year-old man. Antemortem blood culture and the postmortem microscopic examination of the myocardial abscess revealed the causative agent to be Staphylococcus aureus. Hemopericardium due to ventricular wall rupture secondary to a myocardial abscess has been infrequently reported, but, to our knowledge, only one other report of hemopericardium due to coronary artery rupture related to myocardial abscess has been published.
Fan
C C
CC
Department of Pathology, University of Illinois, Chicago 60612.
Andersen
B R
BR
Sahgal
S
S
D000038:Abscess / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D009202:Cardiomyopathies / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010490:Pericardial Effusion / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology