S Chan, MD Silver.
Coronary embolism is an infrequent phenomenon.
The patient had a cardiac arrest 36 h after surgery. Cardiac standstill, tamponade and a left ventricular rupture were noted when the chest was opened during attempted resuscitation. Autopsy revealed an occlusive embolus of myocardium in the proximal left anterior descending coronary artery. It showed pathological features of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. There was an extensive acute transmural anteroseptal left ventricular myocardial infarction with rupture of the anterior free wall.