Coronary artery aneurysms in a young adult

Coronary artery aneurysms are an extremely rare cause of death at any age, but particularly so in young adults. A case is described of a young and previously fit man who died suddenly following thrombosis within one of multiple coronary artery aneurysms. He had had a childhood illness with symptoms consistent with an episode of unrecognized infantile polyarteritis nodosa. It is suggested that many cases of aneurysm of the coronary arteries in young adults, where atherosclerosis has been excluded, may in fact be due to previous polyarteritis, rather than of congenital origin as is usually claimed.