title: Coronary thrombosis and sudden death after an enteroviral infection. Case report.
abstract: We report the case of a 26-year-old man who died suddenly 9 days after an episode of flu. Microscopic examination of the left anterior descending coronary artery showed an eccentric fibroatheromatic plaque complicated by thrombosis, endothelial erosion and extensive T-cell and macrophage infiltration. Frozen sections of the thrombotic coronary segment, analysed for different infective agents by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and reverse transcriptase (RT)-PCR, showed positive amplification for an enteroviral genome. Enteroviral infection may play an important role in coronary plaque instability and may precipitate thrombotic occlusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Padua Medical School, Padua, Italy.
authors.forename: Fiorella
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Calabrese
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Basso
authors.forename: Marialuisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valente
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Thiene
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003328:Coronary Thrombosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D017934:Coronavirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology / Q000821:virology; D004769:Enterovirus Infections / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral