Acute coronary occlusion with exercise testing after initially successful coronary angioplasty for acute myocardial infarction

Exercise testing is frequently performed within several days after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) to assess the functional result of the procedure. 1,2 Early stress testing is considered safe, and few complications have been described. Dash 3 reported a case of acute coronary occlusion after early treadmill stress testing necessitating emergency bypass surgery. Herein we describe a patient in whom acute occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) developed during symptom-limited exercise testing 5 days after angiographically successful PTCA.