Coronary plague instability in severe acute respiratory syndrome

Tsui, Kin-Lam; Leung, Tat-Chi; Yam, Loretta Yin-Chun; So, Loletta Kit-Ying; Poon, Edwin; Lung, Kwok-Cheung; Li, Shu-Kin

In his second week of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) illness, a patient developed an unusually complicated course of acute coronary syndrome. One day after initial stabilization of a non-ST-elevated anterior myocardial infarction (MI), he sustained an ST-elevated anterior MI. Eight hours after emergency coronary intervention to the culprit lesion, he developed another ST-elevated MI in the inferior territory. Acute inflammation and cytokine storm in the immunopathological phase of SARS may play a role in coronary plague instability. Physicians should be alert to this potentially fatal complication and adopt appropriate vigilant and aggressive management strategies.