Acute myocardial infarction in a young athlete: Optical coherence tomographic features of the culprit lesion

• Main Authors: Matjaz Klemenc, Gregor Budihna, Mateja Bedencic, Andrej Bartolic, Igor Kranjec
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publishing 2016-04-01
• Series: SAGE Open Medical Case Reports
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1177/2050313X16642333

Objectives: We report on a young male athlete who suffered from acute myocardial infarction immediately after a vigorous training. Methods: A comprehensive optical coherence tomographic investigation of the culprit coronary artery was performed after the combined mechanical and pharmacological thrombus removal. Results and Conclusion: The imaging discovered a tear at the junction of the non-obstructive, largely fibrotic plaque with the normal arterial wall. This exertion-related vessel damage resulted in a dynamic thrombosis that almost completely occluded the culprit artery. As the vessel obstruction was not considered flow-limiting, the stent implantation was not required and the patient was discharged on the double antiplatelet therapy and statin.