Acute myocardial infarction in a child: possible pathogenic role of patent foramen ovale associated with heritable thrombophilia

ABSTRACT. We report an 8-year-old girl who presented with clinical features of an acute myocardial infarction. The angiographic appearance of the coronary arteries was normal. A thrombophilic state caused by a homozygote genotype for the prothrombin G20210A mutation was detected, and a patent foramen ovale (PFO) with right-to-left shunting after Valsalva maneuver was demonstrated by transesophageal contrast echocardiography. No other embolic source was identified. We suggest that paradoxical embolization through a PFO resulted in a myocardial infarction in this young patient with hereditary thrombophilia. We closed the patient’s PFO with a 25-mm PFO occluder. She was anticoagulated with warfarin for 6 months. After 6 months, a contrast echocardiogram showed no evidence of residual atrial shunt. There has been no evident recurrent paradoxical embolization. Pediatrics 2004;114:e255–e258. URL: http: //www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/114/2/e255; myocardial infarction, patent foramen ovale, hypercoagulable state, prothrombin G20210A, paradoxic embolism.