Cholesterol crystal embolization in a Saudi patient after cardiac surgery--a case report

An eroded atheromatous aorta may be a source of cholesterol crystal embolism(CCE). Embolization of atheromatous material accounts for obstruction of distal arterioles around which a foreign-body giant cell granuloma inflammatory reaction develops. The diagnosis is often delayed or un recognized because of varying or misleading clinical signs, such as renal insufficiency, digestive or neurological symptoms, or both or unexplained multiple-system disease. Although CCE can occur spontaneously, it has been increasingly recognized as an iatrogenic complication from an invasive vascular procedure, such as manipulation of the aorta during angiography or vascular surgery. It has also been reported to occur following anticoagulant therapy or thrombolysis. Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) often experience a combination of these factors: anticoagulation, intra-arterial angiographic procedures and intraoperative aortic cross-clamping. These multiple factors could account for the acute and severe postoperative clinical and biological findings observed in the case reported here. A 65-year-old Saudi man was admitted to our hospital on July 9, 2008 due to chest pain at rest. He had suffered from type 2 diabetes mellitus on Oral hypoglycemics, hypertension on treatment, impaired renal functions and hypercholesterolemia, he was an ex-smoker with history of diagnosed pulmonary interstitial fibrosis. He had Coronary angiography in another hospital on May 2008 showing a left main lesion 60%, Left anterior descending lesion 90%, circumflex lesion 80% and Right coronary lesion 70%, three weeks later an acute on top of chronic deterioration in renal chemistry was observed for which conservative treatment was chosen.