Left Anterior Descending Artery Bridging and Atypical Chest Pain in a Young Woman

Abstract

Cardiac-related chest pain is a frequent cause of morbidity and mortality and should be carefully assessed due to its burden on patient health. Its etiology can sometimes prove challenging to discover because of atypical presentations or rare causes of chest pain like myocardial bridging (MB). MB requires a high index of suspicion to be diagnosed. MB is a rare congenital anomaly that occurs due to the passage of a segment of a coronary artery inside the myocardium, causing chest pain due to compression during systole. MB usually has no clinical significance in most cases. However, when severe bridging occurs in the major coronary arteries, patients can experience myocardial ischemia, coronary thrombosis, myocardial infarction, and stress cardiomyopathy, leading to arrhythmias and sudden death. We present the case of a young woman who presented with atypical (rather than ischemic) chest pain due to MB.