Open AccessAcute Myocardial Infarction Following Viper Bite: A Rare Scenario
Author(s) -
Subrata Chakrabarti,
Pranab Kumar Biswas,
Shailesh Patil,
Kaiwen Pan
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
heart india
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2321-6638
pISSN - 2321-449X
DOI - 10.4103/2321-449x.153281
Subject(s) - viper , medicine , myocardial infarction , complication , chest pain , troponin , cardiology , cardiac catheterization , viper venoms , coronary artery disease , troponin i , infarction , venom , snake venom , ecology , biology
Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a rare complication of snake bite with few reported cases in literature. The author reports a case of a 32-year-old male who developed an anterior wall AMI several hours after a Russell′s viper bite. The diagnosis of myocardial infarction was confirmed by a characteristic retrosternal chest pain, typical electrocardiographic changes, and elevated Troponin I levels. The patient had no risk factors for coronary artery disease and the coronary arteries were normal on cardiac catheterization. The importance of the case report is to highlight upon the fact that physicians, especially from developing countries like India should be aware of this potentially life-threatening complication of viper bite and take immediate steps for its recognition and management