A 28-year old man developed transmural anterior wall myocardial infarction after a car accident despite the absence of external signs of chest trauma. Coronary angiography one month after the accident demonstrated an aneurysm of the left anterior descending artery. Angiography five and eleven months afterwards showed almost total regression of the aneurysm. The man remained asymptomatic with no signs of residual ischaemia one year after the accident. Blunt trauma to the chest is a well-known cause of cardiac damage including myocardial contusion, rupture of the ventricular wall, septum, papillary muscles or chordae tendineae. Myocardial infarction secondary to distinct injury to a coronary artery has only seldom been described. Visualization of a localized lesion in a coronary artery of an otherwise non-atherosclerotic coronary tree supports the traumatic origin of a myocardial infarction.
Adult Coronary Aneurysm