Di Cori Andrea, Petronio Anna Sonia, Gemignani Cristina, Zucchelli Giulio, Di Bello Vitantonio, Mariani Mario
Cardiac and Thoracic Department, University of Pisa, Italy.
J Heart Lung Transplant. 2005 Aug;24(8):1146-9. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2004.07.003.
Accelerated coronary artery disease remains the limiting factor in the long-term survival of heart transplant (HT) recipients and occurs in approximately 50% of patients by 5 years after transplantation. Sequelae of graft arteriosclerosis include congestive heart failure (due to acute or chronic ischemia), graft loss, and death. Unfortunately, as a consequence of cardiac denervation, symptoms are often atypical or completely absent, and thus presentation with an acute coronary syndrome is extremely uncommon. We describe the case of an HT recipient with a typical clinical picture of an acute myocardial infarction (MI), who presented to our hospital 2 hours after the onset of symptoms and was successfully treated with primary percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA).
