[Complications of an unrecognized myocardial infarction]

Patients with an untreated myocardial infarction may present with serious late complications. 3 patients are described. A 63-year-old woman became progressively more short of breath 4 days after an acute episode of chest pain accompanied by nausea and sweating. It proved to be a cardiogenic shock following a rupture of a papillary muscle. A man aged 65 collapsed 5 days after an episode of back pain and nausea. This was a cardiac tamponade due to rupture of the left ventricle. A woman aged 74 had transient aphasia and during investigations for this was seen to have anomalies on ECG. She had cerebral emboli and a cardiac aneurysm with associated thrombus. All 3 patients recovered following mitral-valve replacement, repair of the rupture and medicinal treatment for the clot, respectively. Around one-third of patients who have a myocardial infarction do not have chest pain but experience shortness of breath, autonomic nervous symptoms (sweating, nausea, vomiting), extreme and inexplicable tiredness and fainting. These atypical symptoms should suggest myocardial infarction. In order to avoid high morbidity and death from complications such as arrhythmias, heart failure, rupture and aneurysm formation it is important that a patient who has had a myocardial infarction should be treated as soon as possible, preferably by reperfusion therapy.