On recurrent myocardial infarction and reinfarction

Abstract

The paper presents three case reports to discuss the criteria of myocardial reinfarction. The cases are of interest because of a short-term interval (from 1 to 14 days) between the infarctions occurred in different coronary arteries. In two cases resulting in a fatal outcome after ineffective PCI, the total affected area of the left ventricle reached 90 %; in one more case, early re-canalizations of two infarct-related arteries at an interval of one day, made it possible to prevent a fatal outcome and preserve the contractile function of the heart. The currently used classification defines such infarctions as primary recurrent infarctions due to the persisting occlusion in one and the same infarct-related artery. In our cases, the infarctions were the results of occlusions in different coronary arteries, and therefore, the total affected area, in case of no effective PCI, covered almost the entire left ventricle, which resulted in a fatal outcome. Such infarctions, despite their early development, should reasonably be defined as reinfarctions rather than as recurrent myocardial infarctions.