Acute myocardial infarction in a young man with sickle cell disease

Sickle cell disease is considered protective against large vessel coronary artery disease. Although sickle cell patients do develop myocardial degeneration and fibrosis at a higher rate than age-matched controls, they rarely suffer from an acute myocardial infarction. We present a case of a 29-year-old man with sickle cell disease who presented with an acute non-ST segment myocardial infarction. In sickle cell patients who present with chest pain as an element of their sickle cell crisis, the clinician must consider acute myocardial infarction in the differential along with more common entities like acute chest syndrome.