Type IV dual left anterior descending coronary artery: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Dual left anterior descending (LAD) artery or duplication of LAD is a rarely reported coronary anomaly, consisting of two branches supplying the usual distribution of the LAD. Type IV dual LAD, in which a short LAD arises from the left main coronary artery and a long LAD arises from the right coronary artery is remarkably rare, and has not been reported in a Bangladeshi subject. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe the case of a 70-year old Bangladeshi male who presented with breathlessness in the background of a prior inferior myocardial infarction. Coronary angiography revealed an anomalous dual LAD. The short LAD which arose from the left main coronary artery gave off the first septal branch and terminated after giving off a large diagonal branch which continued further down towards the apex. The long LAD arose from the proximal right coronary artery and after traversing a distance, arrived at the interventricular septum, terminating at the apex after giving off diagonal branches. The right coronary artery was totally occluded from its early mid part and well-collateralized with retrograde flow from the left system. CONCLUSION: We describe a case with unique variation of dual LAD type IV, which has previously not been described in a Bangladeshi subject thus far. Coronary angiography is vital to determine this coronary anomaly, which is usually detected incidentally on routine angiography for chest pain, sometimes with involvement of significant lesion of other coronary arteries, as in this case.

Right coronary artery perforation extending to the coronary sinus of Valsalva during percutaneous intervention successfully sealed with polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Right coronary artery perforation extending to the sinus of Valsalva is a rare and potentially fatal complication of percutaneous coronary intervention. There are no definite guidelines on the management strategies for such complications. Treatment modality depends on the patient's haemodynamic stability and the extent of aortic involvement. Polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stents have emerged as a revolutionary strategy, enabling efficient endovascular repair of the entry port of such dissections, particularly the coronary ostia, and obviating the need for high-risk emergent surgical intervention. CASE PRESENTATION: A 60 year old Bangladeshi gentleman underwent a coronary angiogram following a prior inferior ST elevation myocardial infarction (MI), 1 month previously. Coronary angiography done via right radial approach using 5 FR TIG catheter showed diffuse mid RCA disease with maximum 90% stenosis. Angioplasty of the RCA was planned. The RCA was cannulated with a 6-French JR 3.5 guiding catheter (USA). The lesion was crossed by a 0.014 inch guide wire and stented with a 2.75 × 38 mm novolimus-eluting DESyne stent, after predilatation. Immediately after stenting, a Type II perforation was observed in the ostial RCA, which progressed into the right coronary sinus of Valsalva. As the patient was haemodynamically stable with no ischaemia on ECG, we attempted to seal the ostial RCA with bare metal stents. Two successive bare metal stents failed to seal the aorto-coronary dissection. Ultimately, a 3.0 × 19 mm polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent was deployed to seal the entry port in the ostial RCA, yielding a satisfactory angiographic result with only minimal contrast staining limited to the right sinus of Valsalva. The patient was closely monitored and discharged on dual antiplatelet therapy comprising of aspirin and prasugrel. He remained asymptomatic and with follow up echocardiograms showing no pericardial effusion nor extension of the dissection. CONCLUSIONS: The polytetrafluoroethylene-covered stent provides a safe and effective means of sealing iatrogenic aorto-coronary dissections complicated by Ellis type II or II perforations, thus avoiding emergency surgery. However, as they are associated with increased incidence of stent thrombosis, an efficient and prolonged post-PCI antiplatelet regimen is recommended.

Pericardial tamponade due to haemorrhagic pericardial effusion as a complication of prasugrel: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Striking an adequate balance between bleeding risks and prevention of stent thrombosis can be challenging in the setting of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug eluting stents (DES) in acute myocardial infarction (MI). This is more pronounced in patients treated with both low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) and dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT). Prasugrel, a second generation thienopyridine with more potent platelet inhibition capability, is associated with significant bleeding risks. This risk of bleeding is often underestimated when prescribing pharmacological agents such as DAPT and LMWH, designed to reduce ischaemic events following PCI in acute MI. Life-threatening haemorrhagic pericardial and pleural effusions not associated with access site bleeding are a rare example of such bleeding complications. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a case of a Bangladeshi male who developed cardiac tamponade resulting from haemorrhagic pericardial effusion as well as bilateral pleural effusions, 9 days after PCI with a DES, while on prasugrel and aspirin. He had presented late with inferior ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), and was therefore also given enoxaparin initially. Haemorrhagic pericardial and pleural fluid were drained, and the patient was discharged on DAPT comprising of aspirin and clopidogrel. Following PCI to obtuse marginal, which was done as a staged procedure 6 months later, he was commenced on ticagrelor instead of clopidogrel. He developed no further bleeding complications over 1 year of follow up. CONCLUSION: Non-access site bleeding such as this, leading to haemorrhagic pericardial and pleural effusions can be rare and life-threatening. Furthermore, patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) have marked variation in their risk of major bleeding. Since haemorrhagic complications are associated with mortality, maintaining a balance between the risk of recurrent ischemia and that of bleeding is of paramount importance. The use of validated bleeding risk scores, careful monitoring of patients on DAPT with LMWH, or a switch over to agents with lesser risk of bleeding may reduce such complications.

Prevalence of CYP2C19 alleles, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic variation of clopidogrel and prasugrel in Bangladeshi population.

The extent to which cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C19 genotype influences the effectiveness of clopidogrel remains uncertain due to considerable heterogeneity between studies. We used the polymerase chain reaction restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method for genotyping loss of function (LOF) allele, CYP2C19*2 and gain of function (GOF) allele, CYP2C19*17 in 163 patients undergoing PCI and 165 healthy volunteers from an ethnically distinctive Bangladeshi population. Thirty-eight patients took prasugrel and 125 patients took clopidogrel among whom 30 patients had their clopidogrel active metabolites (CAM) determined by LC-MS/MS 1-1.5 h after clopidogrel intake. All patients who underwent PCI had their P2Y12 per cent inhibition (PRI) measured by VerifyNow System. The impact of different genotypes on CAM and PRI were also determined. We did not find significant variation of CYP2C19*2 (P > 0.05) and CYP2C9*17 (P > 0.05) alleles among healthy volunteers and patients. CAM concentration as well as PRI by clopidogrel varied significantly (P < 0.05) based on genotypic variation of CYP2C19*2 and CYP2C19*17 individually. Such influence was not observed in case of prasugrel. Genotypic variation did not impact PRI but as a whole PRI by prasugrel was better than that of clopidogrel (P < 0.05). Due to presence of both of alleles the effect on PRI by clopidogrel could not be predicted, effectively indicating possible involvement of other factors. Genotype guided clopidogrel dose adjustment would be beneficial and therefore we propose mandatory genotyping before clopidogrel dosing. Prasugrel proved to be less affected by genotypic variability, but due to lack of sufficient long-term toxicity data, caution would be adopted before substituting clopidogrel.