Acute myocardial infarction in systemic sclerosis patients: a case series

To characterize the clinical manifestations of patients with systemic sclerosis who develop a myocardial infarction (MI), a retrospective review of the medical records of all patients who were admitted to our institution between 1982 and 2002 and had the dual diagnosis of systemic sclerosis and an acute MI was done. From 1,009 systemic sclerosis hospital admissions, 11 (1.09%) were for an acute MI. Three of these patients had normal coronaries, and instead of wall motion abnormalities, left ventricular hypertrophy was the predominant finding of an echocardiography. The odds ratio of finding normal coronaries in systemic sclerosis vs the general population who develops an acute MI is 33.89 (14.08–81.39). Seven of our patients had an elevated creatinine level on presentation. Acute MI is an uncommon manifestation in systemic sclerosis patients. Normal coronaries are seen more commonly in these patients as compared to the general population, while vascular, gastrointestinal, and renal involvement is prevalent in these patients.