Clinical case of a paradoxical embolism that caused an acute myocardial infarction after deep vein thrombosis

Abstract

Paradoxical thromboembolism due to the presence of an patent foramen ovale (PFO) is a rather rare phenomenon, especially when an embolism results in acute myocardial infarction (MI). The presented clinical case of the paradoxical embolism is interesting for several reasons: firstly, the patient's primary disease was deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary artery thromboembolism (PATE); secondly, apparently, it was due to PATE and the subsequent overload of the right side of the heart that thelatent embolism became apparent; thirdly, the paradoxical embolism was apparently caused by the fragments of alarge thrombus stuck in PFO, fourthly, the current clinical situation was ambiguous with respect to medical decisions, primarily concerning antithrombotic therapy.

Keywords

• paradoxical embolism
• patent foramen ovale
• acute myocardial infarction
• deep vein thrombosis
• pate
• anticoagulants
• noac