Acute myocardial infarction presenting as headache: a case report

The diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction is straightforward when it presents with typical symptoms. However, some patients can be asymptomatic, and some can present with atypical symptoms.

We present a very rare case of acute myocardial infraction that presented with headache and right upper limb numbness of 2-day duration in a 61-year-old female Middle Eastern patient. The patient underwent percutaneous coronary intervention to a totally occluded right coronary artery with two drug-eluting stents. The headache and numbness immediately disappeared after revascularization, and the patient was discharged on anti-ischemic medications. This report concerns a case of cardiac cephalalgia.

Myocardial infarction can present in several different ways and should be included in the differential diagnosis for headache.