The Broken Heart Within

A 50-year-old male, chronic crack-cocaine abuser, presented with angina after a “binge.” He had undergone left anterior descending drug-eluting stent deployment 3 weeks earlier for myocardial infarction and admitted to medication noncompliance. Transradial cardiac catheterization revealed no significant coronary stenoses and a patent stent. Left ventriculography demonstrated antero-apical akinesis with a (broken) heart-shaped thrombus, previously not seen (Figure 1). The patient’s post-infarct course was uneventful and he was transferred to a drug rehabilitation facility on aspirin, clopidogrel, warfarin, simvastatin, carvedilol and lisinopril. We are hopeful that future recuperation of the larger broken heart will result in dissolution of the smaller one. The authors can be contacted at chenjackapollo@yahoo.com

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