Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Dec 16, 2017; 5(12): 428-431
Published online Dec 16, 2017. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v5.i12.428
Sickle-cell and alpha-thalassemia traits resulting in non-atherosclerotic myocardial infarction: Beyond coincidence?
Lee S Nguyen, Alban Redheuil, Olivier Mangin, Joe-Elie Salem
Lee S Nguyen, Department of Critical Care Medicine, CMC Ambroise Paré, Neuilly-sur-Seine 92200, France
Lee S Nguyen, Alban Redheuil, Olivier Mangin, Joe-Elie Salem, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, School of Medicine, Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition, Paris 75013, France
Lee S Nguyen, Olivier Mangin, Joe-Elie Salem, Department of Pharmacology and CIC-1421, AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris 75013, France
Lee S Nguyen, Olivier Mangin, Joe-Elie Salem, INSERM, CIC-1421 and UMR ICAN 1166, Paris 75013, France
Alban Redheuil, Cardiovascular Imaging and Interventional Radiology Department, AP-HP, Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris 75013, France
Author contributions: Nguyen LS wrote the manuscript and performed literature research and reviewing; Redheuil A provided with image interpretation and critical reviewing; Mangin O contributed to the edition and reviewing; Salem JE supervised the work and provided critical reviewing and editing.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.
Informed consent statement: All patients gave informed consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: None of the authors have any conflict of interest related to the article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Lee S Nguyen, MD, MSc, Department of Critical Care Medicine, CMC Ambroise Paré, 25 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Neuilly-sur-Seine 92200, France. nguyen.lee@icloud.com
Telephone: +33-14-6418950 Fax: +33-14-7381447
Received: July 3, 2017
Peer-review started: July 6, 2017
First decision: August 4, 2017
Revised: August 25, 2017
Accepted: September 12, 2017
Article in press: September 13, 2017
Published online: December 16, 2017
Abstract

Alpha-thalassemia trait and sickle trait are not commonly considered risk factors of ischemic heart disease. We report the case of a non-atherosclerotic silent myocardial infarction in a 46-year-old woman, carrier of the alpha-thalassemia trait (homozygous deletion of locus -3.7) combined with sickle cell trait. While the patient was included as healthy volunteer for a metabolic study, we performed cardiac magnetic resonance imagery showing a left ventricle apicolateral myocardial infarction. Coronary computed tomography angiography showed normal coronary arteries with a coronary calcium score of 0. The patient was treated with low-dose aspirin in secondary prevention afterwards. This case allows us to discuss cardiovascular risk among patients presenting with both alpha-thalassemia trait and sickle cell trait and the indication of cardiac imagery in such patients even when considered as low-cardiovascular risk.

Keywords: Alpha-thalassemia trait, Sickle-cell trait, Non-atherosclerotic myocardial infarction, Cardiovascular risk factor, Coronary computed tomography angiography

Core tip: Alpha-thalassemia trait and sickle trait are not considered risk factors of ischemic cardiopathy. We reported the case of a non-atherosclerotic silent myocardial infarction in a 46-year-old woman, carrier of the alpha-thalassemia trait combined with sickle cell trait. While the patient was included as healthy volunteer for a metabolic study, we performed cardiac magnetic resonance imagery showing a left ventricle apicolateral myocardial infarction. Coronary computed tomography angiography showed normal coronary arteries with a null calcium score. The patient was treated with low-dose aspirin in secondary prevention afterwards. This case allows us to discuss cardiovascular risk among patients presenting with alpha-thalassemia trait and sickle cell trait.