Exertional stress is a common trigger of coronary artery spasm and can lead to myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries, with secondary atrial fibrillation and acute cerebral infarction; this case report describes one such patient to inform clinical recognition and management.
Key Findings
Results
The authors report one patient with effort-related myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA) whose coronary angiography showed no obvious stenosis.
The report is a single-patient case (n=1).
Coronary angiography showed no obvious narrowing, consistent with a non-obstructive presentation.
The infarction was attributed to exertional (effort-related) stress.
Results
The same patient developed atrial fibrillation and a cerebellar infarction in addition to the myocardial infarction.
The abstract describes the case as complicated by atrial fibrillation and cerebellar (small-brain) infarction.
This illustrates multiple vascular events occurring in one patient after exertional stress.
The abstract gives no patient age, sex, timeline, treatment details, or outcome.
Background
Exertional stress is described as a common trigger of coronary artery spasm, which can lead to MINOCA.
The abstract presents this as background: spasm triggered by exertion can cause myocardial infarction without obstructive coronary disease.
No quantitative data are provided to support this statement in the abstract.
Conclusions
Exertional-stress-induced MINOCA can be followed by secondary atrial fibrillation and acute cerebral infarction, and diagnosing and treating such cases is challenging.
The abstract describes these as 'multiple vascular events' that can follow exertional MINOCA.
The authors state that clinical diagnosis and management are challenging.
The case is offered as a reference for clinical recognition and management of this condition.
What This Means
This is a case report of a single patient. The patient had a heart attack after physical exertion, but the arteries supplying the heart showed no obvious blockage on angiography. This pattern is called myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA). The authors note that strenuous effort can trigger spasm of the coronary arteries, which can cause this kind of heart attack.
The same patient also developed atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, and a stroke in the cerebellum, a part of the brain. This shows that one exertion-related episode can lead to several vascular problems. The authors say such cases are hard to diagnose and manage.
This research suggests that doctors should consider coronary spasm and other causes of heart attack without blocked arteries, and should watch for rhythm problems and stroke afterward. A single case cannot show how common these events are or which treatments work best. The abstract gives no details of the patient's treatment or outcome.
Wang Q, Huang X, Li S. (2026). [A case of effort-related myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries complicated by atrial fibrillation and cerebral infarction].. Zhonghua xin xue guan bing za zhi. https://doi.org/10.3760/cma.j.cn112148-20260104-00008