Coronary artery vasospasm causing acute myocardial infarction in a heart transplant recipient

J Heart Lung Transplant. 2005 Mar;24(3):355-8. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2003.11.405.

Abstract

The etiology of cardiac allograft vasculopathy is not known, but may be preceded by both endothelial cell and smooth muscle dysfunction of the epicardial coronary arteries. We here report a case of acute, reversible coronary artery vasospasm which caused a myocardial infarction in a cardiac transplant recipient. The patient had a complex post-transplant course, including an episode of severe vascular rejection several months before this presentation. Interestingly, the event was captured in its early stages because the patient presented with chest pain: a rare event because of the denervation of the transplanted heart. Our ability to document the etiology of this patient's myocardial infarction supports the concept that cardiac allograft vasculopathy is a progressive disease that, in its early stages, may include a reversible component of abnormal vasoreactivity.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Acute Disease
  • Coronary Angiography
  • Coronary Vasospasm / complications*
  • Coronary Vasospasm / drug therapy
  • Coronary Vasospasm / epidemiology
  • Coronary Vasospasm / physiopathology
  • Disease Progression
  • Graft Rejection / epidemiology
  • Heart Transplantation*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Myocardial Infarction / etiology*
  • Nitroglycerin / therapeutic use
  • Transplantation, Homologous
  • Vasodilator Agents / therapeutic use

Substances

  • Vasodilator Agents
  • Nitroglycerin