Ventricular rupture during coronary angioplasty for acute reinfarction.

Ventricular rupture following acute myocardial infarction usually leads to hemopericardium and death from cardiac tamponade. We describe a patient who had cardiac rupture during direct angioplasty for reinfarction 3 days following an acute anterior myocardial infarction. In this instance, ventricular rupture presented as a severe form of reperfusion injury. The current literature on reperfusion injury and risk factors for cardiac rupture are discussed.