title: Coronary thrombus detected by cardiac CT angiography before cardiac catheterization.
abstract: A patient presented with a complaint of pleuritic chest discomfort with elevated cardiac biomarkers. After a cardiac magnetic resonance imaging scan for the suspicion of myopericarditis showed a potential myocardial infarct, a coronary CT scan was performed. This revealed a thrombus of the left anterior descending artery. Cardiac catheterization confirmed the findings, and a small clot was removed. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of coronary thrombus being detected by CT angiography with cardiac catheterization correlation. Coronary CT angiography has been increasingly used to evaluate acute chest pain with a negative predictive value close to 100%. In a young patient with suspicion of myopericarditis, CT angiography proved to be useful in diagnosing thrombus in the coronary tree.
authors.affiliation: Cardiology Service, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX, USA. Ahmad.slim@us.army.mil
authors.forename: Ahmad M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Slim
authors.forename: Jennifer N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Slim
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Haney
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Shry
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization / Q000379:methods*; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000209:etiology; D017023:Coronary Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D003328:Coronary Thrombosis / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*