A rare cause of myocardial infarction: coronary embolism in a patient with prosthetic mitral valve thrombosis.

The incidence of systemic embolization with mechanical valves is 1% per year [1]. Most cases present as cerebrovascular events. As the incidence of mechanical valve surgery has increased in recent years, systemic thromboembolism has become an important problem. Although coronary embolism due to mechanical valve thrombosis is encountered rarely, it is an important and serious complication. We report here a case of embolic myocardial infarction caused by a thrombus of a mechanical mitral valve.