An Uncommon Complication of Infective Bacterial Endocarditis

Coronary artery septic embolisation resulting in cardioembolic myocardial infarction (MI) is a rare complication of bacterial infective endocarditis (IE), representing <1% of complications related to IE [1]. Diagnosis requires a combination of high clinical suspicion, coronary angiography, echocardiography and cultures of peripheral blood and/or embolic material. The associated mortality rate remains high despite early diagnosis [2]. Optimal interventional therapy is unknown with published international experience over the past two decades limited to very small case series and individual case reports [3]. We present a case of ST elevation MI resulting from coronary artery septic embolisation with an accompanying comprehensive review of the literature.