Case Report

Acute myocardial infarction and pulmonary tuberculosis in a young female patient: a case report

Aurora Bakalli¹ , Behxhet Osmani² , Lulzim Kamberi¹ and Ejup Pllana¹

¹  University Clinical Center of Kosova, Department of Cardiology, Prishtine, Kosove

²  University Clinical Center of Kosova, Department of Pulmology and Pneumophtysiology, Prishtine, Kosove

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Cases Journal 2008, 1:246doi:10.1186/1757-1626-1-246

Published:	17 October 2008

Abstract

Introduction

Tuberculous coronaritis is known to be a very rare phenomenon, although Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as some other infectious agents, may also act in the coronary vessels by activating the inflammatory mechanism of atherosclerosis. The association between active pulmonary tuberculosis and acute myocardial infarction has not been reported for around three and a half decades.

Case presentation

We presented here a case of a young, 30 year old, Caucasian woman who presented to Emergency Ward with severe chest pain, ECG and enzyme profile typical for acute myocardial infarction. Chest X-ray displayed high intensity shades in the left lung field, which after additional laboratory tests were shown to be due to active pulmonary tuberculosis.

Conclusion

As the patient did not have any other known coronary artery disease risk factors, we held responsible Mycobacterium tuberculosis for occurrence of acute myocardial infarction in this young female patient. We believe that the presentation of this rare case of myocardial infarction in a patient with active pulmonary tuberculosis should encourage researchers to investigate the potential role of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pathogenesis of coronary heart disease.