Acute myocardial infarction and cerebrovascular accident in a young girl after a viper bite.

A 17-year-old girl developed an acute myocardial infarction immediately after being bitten by a viper and four days later she had a cerebrovascular accident. The close clinical and laboratory follow-up of this case suggested that myocardial damage could be attributed to a direct cardiotoxic effect of the venom, while the brain injury that subsequently appeared was probably the result of a disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, possibly in conjunction with vasculitis.