Acute Myocardial Injury in a Child with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Pulse Steroid Therapy?

Heart implication in Duchenne muscular dystrophy usually is present in the form of dilated cardiomyopathy, manifested as heart failure and arrhythmias. To delay progression, including heart deterioration, prednisone is recommended as preventive treatment. We report the case of an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with Duchenne muscular dystrophy at the age of seven, who was on preventive treatment with oral prednisone (0.75 mg/kg/day) and beta blocker (metoprolol, 1 mg/kg/day). Suddenly, the patient presented acute chest pain, vomiting and sweating. The electrocardiogram showed ST elevation in inferior leads. Troponin T was increased to 30814 pg/ml (normal values <14 pg/mL). The echocardiography revealed reduced contractility of the posteroinferior wall of the left ventricle. After excluding coronary implications by coronary angiography, we increased the oral prednisone to 1.4 mg/kg/day for five days and added enalapril (0.5 mg/kg/day, po). The response was positive, with a rapid decrease of the troponin T value to 3186 pg/mL in five days and gradual recovery of myocardial contractility afterwards.