• Gerard Oghlakian, Pierre Maldjian, Edo Kaluski, and Muhamed Saric.
• Department of Medicine, New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ, USA. drgerhald@hotmail.com
• Emerg Radiol. 2010 Mar 1;17(2):149-51.

AbstractCardiac complications of chest trauma range from arrhythmias to valvular avulsions to myocardial contusion, rupture, and rarely myocardial infarction. We describe a case of a young patient with blunt chest trauma after a motor vehicle accident in whom the diagnosis of myocardial infarction was established a week later because no electrocardiogram or cardiac biomarkers were obtained on presentation. Retrospective review of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) of the chest done on presentation demonstrated a perfusion defect in the distribution of the left anterior descending artery (LAD). Subsequent coronary angiography demonstrated dissection in the proximal LAD. Our case illustrates the importance of electrocardiography and contrast-enhanced chest CT in initial evaluation of patients with blunt chest trauma and suspected injury to the coronary arteries.

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