A 74-year-old man, with inflammatory arthritis, recently commenced on adalimumab, presented with a 4-week history of left-sided chest pain, malaise and shortness of breath. Admission ECG showed age-indeterminate left bundle branch block. Troponin T was 4444 ng/L (normal range <15 ng/L) and acute coronary syndrome treatment was commenced. Catheter angiogram revealed mild-burden non-obstructive coronary disease. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) was performed to refine the differential diagnosis and demonstrated no myocardial oedema or late gadolinium enhancement. Extracardiac review highlighted oedema and enhancement of the left shoulder girdle muscles consistent with acute myositis. Creatine kinase was subsequently measured and significantly elevated at 7386 IU/L (normal range 30-200 IU/L in men). Electrophoresis clarified that this was of predominantly skeletal muscle origin. Myositis protocol MRI revealed florid skeletal muscle oedema. The MR findings, together with positive anti-Scl-70 antibodies, suggested fulminant immune-mediated necrotising myopathy presenting as a rare mimic of myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries, diagnosed by careful extracardiac CMR review.
Keywords: cardiovascular medicine; radiology; rheumatology.
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