Acute Myocardial Infarction in a Young Male with Ankylosing Spondylitis – Case Presentation

Cardiovascular risk scores are useful in early detecting and, most important, early correcting the cardiovascular risk factors in order to prevent the cardiovascular disease, but the most commonly used charts have essential limitations when applied to young adults.

We present the case of a 39-year-old man, known with HLA-B27-positive ankylosing spondylitis for 15 years, treated only with nonsteroidal antiinflamatory drugs, without any traditional cardiovascular risk factors, who was diagnosed with severe coronary artery disease, sub-occlusion in the proximal and mid-segment of the left anterior descending artery, which required emergency percutaneous coronary intervention with drug-eluting stent implantation. In this case report we aim to highlight the necessity of considering other parameters such as C-reactive protein levels or carotid plaques when estimating the risk of developing a cardiovascular disease, especially in young adults diagnosed with chronic inflammatory disease.