open access
Atypical myocardial infarction on a cruise ship
open access
Abstract
A previously asymptomatic 44-year-old male crewmember on a cruise ship experienced several brief episodes of acute chest pain within a short time frame. He was ultimately diagnosed with myocardial infarction; 5 h earlier he had been discharged from the ship’s medical centre after almost 8 h of monitoring to rule-out infarction. Subsequent angiography ashore revealed a 99% occlusion of the right coronary artery. This case highlights the dangers of over-reliance on shipboard cardiac enzyme testing to clear a patient with chest pain.
Abstract
A previously asymptomatic 44-year-old male crewmember on a cruise ship experienced several brief episodes of acute chest pain within a short time frame. He was ultimately diagnosed with myocardial infarction; 5 h earlier he had been discharged from the ship’s medical centre after almost 8 h of monitoring to rule-out infarction. Subsequent angiography ashore revealed a 99% occlusion of the right coronary artery. This case highlights the dangers of over-reliance on shipboard cardiac enzyme testing to clear a patient with chest pain.
Keywords
acute chest pain, acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, cardiac enzymes, electrocardiogram, maritime medicine
About this articleTitle
Atypical myocardial infarction on a cruise ship
Journal
Issue
Article type
Case report
Pages
22-24
Published online
2015-03-19
Page views
1241
Article views/downloads
2090
DOI
10.5603/IMH.2015.0006
Pubmed
Bibliographic record
IMH 2015;66(1):22-24.
Keywords
acute chest pain
acute coronary syndrome
myocardial infarction
cardiac enzymes
electrocardiogram
maritime medicine
Authors
Christopher Taylor
