Diffuse pulmonary hemorrhage after fibrinolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction in a cocaine abuser patient

Abstract

We report a 45-year-old man with antroseptal myocardial infarction who developed bilateral basal alveolar infiltrates after initiating the fibrinolytic therapy. Although thrombolytic therapy with streptokinase is generally used in the course of acute myocardial infarction and has diminished morbidity and mortality, pulmonary hemorrhage is an uncommon, but a potentially life-threatening complication that should be regarded as one of the differential diagnoses of pulmonary infiltrates or dropping hemoglobin with no apparent bleeding site.

Keywords

• Alveolar infiltrates
• fibrinolytic therapy
• myocardial infarction
• pulmonary hemorrhage
• streptokinase