Cardiac wall rupture in systemic lupus erythematosus: a case report and review of the literature

Cardiac wall rupture (CWR) is a serious and often fatal complication of myocardial infarction (MI). Despite an increase in the incidence of MI in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), cases of CWR in these patients have been reported rarely. This study reports an SLE patient with CWR and pseudoaneurysm formation and reviews previously reported cases of CWR in SLE patients. An English language literature review of from the PubMed, EMBASE, and Scopus databases on published cases of CWR in SLE, up until January 2023, was performed and analyzed. The search identified 4 patients, including the present one, 5 cases altogether. All of them were female aged 27–40 years, and 3 of them had had SLE for 10 years or more. Chest pain and dyspnea were the common presentations. All had left ventricular (LV) wall rupture. Three patients had LV wall rupture with pseudoaneurysm formation (one had MI with normal coronary artery, one myocardial necrosis secondary from small coronary artery vasculitis and one MI from uncertain cause). The other 2 patients had LV free wall rupture (one had MI with extensive coronary atherosclerosis with coronary arteritis, and the other septic myocarditis with septic coronary arteritis) and these 2 patients died before the diagnosis was made. Three patients with pseudoaneurysm received surgical correction with good clinical outcomes in all. Cardiac wall rupture is a serious and often fatal cardiac complication. Emergency diagnosis and appropriate management with an experienced cardiology team is crucial. Surgical correction is the treatment of choice. Key Points • Cardiac wall rupture, a serious and often fatal cardiac complication, has rarely been described in SLE patients. • Emergency diagnosis and appropriate management with an experienced cardiology team is crucial. Surgical correction is the treatment of choice.