title: Uncommon cause of a common disease.
abstract: Myocardial infarction is a common life-threatening condition. Multiple agents can be used to treat acute coronary syndrome (ACS). These therapeutic agents pose potential life-threatening complications when used outside the realm of the acute coronary syndrome. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common inherited cardiac disorder, occurring in 1 in 500 individuals, which may mimic ACS. The hypertrophy most typically involves the septum in patients with HCM. As many as 25% of Japanese patients with HCM have predominately apical involvement. Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (AHC) occurs in only 1 to 2% of the non-Japanese population. Despite its low incidence, physicians caring for patients with chest pain need to consider AHC in their differential diagnosis. We present the case of a patient with chest pain and electrocardiographic changes suggestive of ACS who was later found to have AHC.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D024741:Cardiomyopathy, Hypertrophic, Familial / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000209:etiology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005080:Exercise Test; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology