Open AccessDefining the Cause of Postpartum Myocardial Infarction – Another Use for Optical Coherence Tomography
Author(s) -
Abdullah Alenezi,
Jadan Alsaddah,
Ossama Maadarani
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european journal of case reports in internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.125
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 2284-2594
DOI - 10.12890/2020_001854
Subject(s) - medicine , myocardial infarction , cardiology , optical coherence tomography , chest pain , coronary angiography , acute coronary syndrome , radiology , scad , postpartum period , dissection (medical) , artery , angiography , pregnancy , genetics , biology
Chest pain in a young postpartum female can have many causes; however, when associated with ST elevation on ECG, spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) should be high on the list. Coronary angiography remains the first step in delineating the coronary lesion in suspected cases of SCAD and optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be crucial when the angiographic appearance remains uncertain. We present a case of a young postpartum female with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Coronary angiography revealed a dilated part of the middle segment of the left anterior descending (LAD) artery while intramural haematoma (IMH) of the coronary artery wall was found on OCT, which confirmed the clinically suspected diagnosis of SCAD.