title: Acute myocardial infarction due to left anterior descending coronary artery dissection after blunt chest trauma.
abstract: Cardiac complications of chest trauma range from arrhythmias to valvular avulsions to myocardial contusion, rupture, and rarely myocardial infarction. We describe a case of a young patient with blunt chest trauma after a motor vehicle accident in whom the diagnosis of myocardial infarction was established a week later because no electrocardiogram or cardiac biomarkers were obtained on presentation. Retrospective review of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) of the chest done on presentation demonstrated a perfusion defect in the distribution of the left anterior descending artery (LAD). Subsequent coronary angiography demonstrated dissection in the proximal LAD. Our case illustrates the importance of electrocardiography and contrast-enhanced chest CT in initial evaluation of patients with blunt chest trauma and suspected injury to the coronary arteries.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA. drgerhald@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Gerard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oghlakian
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maldjian
authors.forename: Edo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kaluski
authors.forename: Muhamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saric
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000328:Adult; D003287:Contrast Media; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods; D004635:Emergency Medicine; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D013898:Thoracic Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D014949:Wounds, Nonpenetrating / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging
chemical_list: D003287:Contrast Media