Cardiac rupture following acute myocardial infarction in systemic lupus erythematosus: case report.

A thirty-three year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) suffered from acute myocardial infarction. Prednisolone 20 mg/day was used because the signs of SLE, such as fever and decreased serum C3, levels, became aggravated on the fifth hospital day of acute myocardial infarction. Fatal cardiac rupture occurred on the twenty-second hospital day. At autopsy, extensive myocardial infarction with coronary artery thrombi and diffuse coronary arteritis were revealed. The rare clinical picture of a fatal cardiac rupture in the later phase of acute myocardial infarction and the precise dosage of prednisolone for her SLE are described.