Antiplatelet Therapy in a Patient with Coronary Artery Disease and Myelodysplastic Syndrome with Thrombocytopenia

Abstract

To date, there are no sufficient data to make firm recommendations on the treatment of patients with severe thrombocytopenia who require antiplatelet therapy after experiencing acute coronary syndrome. Therefore, we think that it is important to communicate the experience with individual cases. We report the case of a patient who presented with pericardial effusion causing cardiac tamponade. He had thrombocytopenia associated with myelodysplastic syndrome, and ten weeks before this admission, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty with implantation of drug-eluting stents was performed for non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome. Platelets in myelodysplastic syndromes are dysfunctional, which exacerbates bleeding from thrombocytopenia, and the management of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in these patients is challenging.

Keywords

• myelodysplastic syndromes
• thrombocytopenia
• acute coronary syndrome
• antiplatelet therapy
• clopidogrel
• drug-eluting stents