Acute myocardial infarction in a young man complicated with left ventricular thrombi

Premature coronary artery disease is very rare and complication with thrombus formation in the left ventricle is rarer still. A 23-year-old man was admitted to hospital for recent acute myocardial infarction after being struck by a basketball eight days previously. Echocardiography identified two peduncle thrombi at the apex of the left ventricle, which were confirmed with computed tomography. The proximal left anterior descending coronary artery was totally occluded. Following two weeks of treatment with heparin and warfarin, the patient agreed to undergo a coronary artery bypass graft and thrombectomy. The ecchymosed tissue around the coronary artery implied that a trauma injury might have been the cause of the coronary artery disease in this case. This work reviews the pathophysiology and natural history of coronary artery disease in a case of very young myocardial infarction.