Antiphospholipid syndrome and acute myocardial infarction: treatment with thrombectomy and abciximab

Antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) is an autoimmune coagulation disorder that manifests clinically as venous and arterial thrombosis, and may affect any tissue or organ. Coronary artery involvement, however, is very rare. Case reports in the literature describing patients with coronary acute syndrome and APS treated with coronary angioplasty show conflicting results. We report an adult male patient with APS who presented with an acute myocardial infarction. Given the high risk of thrombosis in these patients, he was treated percutaneously with thrombectomy and abciximab. We review the few cases of coronary angioplasty in patients with APS reported to date. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which acute myocardial infarction due to thrombotic coronary occlusion was treated with thrombectomy and abciximab without stenting the artery.