Self-Inserted Needles in the Heart

Cardiac injuries due to penetration by sharp foreign bodies usually have a clear clinical presentation. A case of a 38-year-old man with self-inserted cardiac lesions and a misleading presentation is reported. The patient was admitted to the emergency room because of chest pain, with increase in biomarkers of myocardial necrosis, and electrocardiographic and echocardiographic abnormalities inducing initial diagnostic and therapeutic workup of acute coronary syndrome. Once clinical destabilization followed by death had occurred, the suspicion of an alternative diagnosis came from delayed chest radiography, confirmed by autopsy, revealing the presence of multiple metallic objects within the thorax