A rare case of syncope triggered by atrial flutter in a hypertensive patient with malaria: a case report
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Abstract
Malaria is a parasitic disease that represents a serious public health problem in developing countries, especially Plasmodium falciparum malaria due to its severity and mortality. Cardiac involvement, although reported on few occasions, has been revealed to be more frequent and lethal than believed. Among the main cardiovascular manifestations of malaria are pericarditis, myocarditis and arrhythmias. We report the case of a 66-year-old man, known to have hypertension, who was admitted to the emergency department of Luanda Medical Center for syncope and whose electrocardiogram revealed atrial flutter with rapid ventricular response, and was later diagnosed with malaria with hematological and hepatic dysfunction. The patient's history reveals some risk factors for the emergence of atrial flutter, which, associated with an infectious pathology in with an intense pro-inflammatory response, with have acted as a trigger for the emergence of atrial flutter.
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