ABSTRACT
Atrial infarction is a very rare diagnosis. Though available literature suggests, the condition per se may have been not so rare. Over the past few decades, atrial infarction have been reported several times, even some case series have been reported, but there is no consensus on the diagnosis of this condition, and its true importance also has not been understood completely. Previous works have shown that this condition is associated with several serious complications; hence recognition of this condition in early period is important, which is at the same time not so easy due to subtlety of the known features and less availability of information. We report a case of 70 year old Muslim, Bengali, male suffering from acute coronary syndrome, in whom, right atrial infarction was recognized by electrographic features, which is very rarely diagnosed with confidence in ante-mortem patients. Since, in Bangladesh, post-mortem autopsy to find out causes behind cardiac death is not done routinely and in the light of possibility of serious life-threatening complications, ante-mortem diagnosis of atrial infarction is necessary. So, Cardiologists should be aware of this uncommon condition.
ABSTRACT
Background: Due to socio-economic improvement and changes in the life style, ischeamic heart disease is becoming a major burden to our health care system. In recent years, the incidence is increasing among younger age groups as well. Methods: A total of 120 patients with ischeamic heart disease admitted for coronary angiogram were included in the study and were divided into two groups. Among them, 60 younger patients were in Group-I (d” 40 years of age); 60 older patients in Group-II (>40 years of age). We compared demographic profiles, different risk factors and angiographic profiles between two age groups. Results: Among the common risk factors, smoking (63.3% vs 40%, p=0.011) & family history of ischeamic heart disease (21.7% vs 8.3%, p=0.040) were more common in younger group. Whereas, hypertension (41.7% vs 65.0%, p=0.010) and DM (18.3% vs 36.7%, p=0.024) were more common in older patients. Serum Homocysteine level was found significantly higher in younger patients (30.0% vs 13.3%, p=0.026). In group-I. coronary angiography revealed normal coronaries in 15 patients (25%), single vessel disease in 29 (48.3%) and multi-vessel disease in 16 patients (26.6%). Whereas, 40(66.6%) patients in group-II were found to have multi-vessel disease and 2 of them had significant left main coronary disease. However, young patients who had high serum homocysteine level showed more angiographic severity than older patients. Conclusion: There are significant differences in the clinical, biochemical and angiographic profile of young patients with ischeamic heart disease as compared to older patients. Young patients with ischeamic heart disease has got less angiographic severity, except in those with high serum homocysteine level.