Why can a case report be so important? The case of sudden cardiac death, caused by a coronary anomaly.

Abstract

Coronary artery anomalies (CAA) are one of the most common causes of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the young, in athletes and in military recruits [1–3]. Essentially, anomalous origin of a coronary artery from the opposite sinus of Valsalva (ACAOS, when featuring intramural proximal course of the ectopic artery [3]) is the only type of CAA that is a recognized culprit [1–3]. Current understanding of the patho-physiology of these conditions is still tentative, and the students of such active field of clinical investigations are quite interested in the exact clinical circumstances, during the development of such unusual, unexpected tragedies. Effective treatment requires such understanding. The accompanying article by Kutreti et al. [4] presents in remarkable, unusually available details the case of a 14-year-old girl, who succumbed to one of such cases of SCD.