History
In March 2012 this 68-year-old male patient sought treatment for chest pain. Non–ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) was diagnosed, and, on catheterization, the patient was found to have severe three-vessel disease. This was unsuitable for percutaneous coronary intervention. He was therefore treated with bypass grafting and mitral valve repair.
The patient also had multiple myeloma (immunoglobulin G kappa), which was being treated with bortezimib and decadron; recurrent anemia resulting from myeloma and chemotherapy and requiring periodic blood transfusions; and thrombocytopenia. He was recommended to have platelet transfusions whenever his platelet concentration dropped below 20,000/µL or signs of bleeding occurred.
He had been previously diagnosed with mixed nonischemic and ischemic cardiomyopathy. He had a history of adriamycin exposure and thoracic radiation for myeloma. Magnetic resonance imaging 3 months previously revealed a severely dilated left ventricle (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF], 28%) with an akinetic inferior wall and left ventricular scar area of 9%. There was no evidence of infiltrative disease, for example, amyloidosis.
The patient had previously experienced frequent premature ventricular contractions, possibly contributing to left ventricular dysfunction. Their origin was the inferior scar margin, and they had been successfully ablated 3 months previously (December 2011). Programmed electrical stimulation at that time induced a sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. In view of this, and baseline prolonged QRS duration with a left bundle branch block configuration, he received a cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) implant (February 2012) with automatic remote monitoring capability. The implant was complicated by a significant anterior chest wall hematoma, but did not require evacuation. He had no prior history of atrial fibrillation.
The patient’s other significant comorbidities were chronic renal dysfunction, with a creatinine value normally approximately 2.0, and carotid artery disease, for which he had undergone left carotid endarterectomy in 2009.