A predisposing weakness of the vessel wall has been assumed in patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissections (sCAD). Skin biopsies from many patients with sCAD show mild connective tissue alterations. However, their assessment depends on an invasive and highly specialized technique. Clinical signs of connective tissue disease are absent in the majority of CAD patients. In this review we...

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an emerging and rare cause of acute coronary syndrome and sudden cardiac death. While it was previously reported among young females with fibromuscular dysplasia, new literature indicates that this condition could occur in older populations. Polyarteritis nodosa (PAN) causes systemic necrotizing vasculitis which typically affects small to medium-...

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) should be strongly suspected in young women with few or no traditional risk factors for atherosclerosis. Prompt diagnosis and treatment improve survival. The most appropriate strategy for managing SCAD is still controversial due to the heterogeneity of this population. We describe a case of spontaneous left main coronary artery (LMCA) dissection in ...

S pontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is a rare clinical entity of unknown cause that typically affects young women without coronary risk factors. 1–5 Initial reports were scarce and based on autopsy findings after episodes of sudden cardiac death, suggesting that the condition had a dismal prognosis. 1,2 An intimal tear was seldom found in autopsy series and, therefore, primary disrup...

BACKGROUND Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for evaluating therapy; however, controversy exists regarding the applicability of such results to daily practice, as patients are often pre-selected and may not reflect real-world clinical settings. We studied the eligibility criteria for 3102 "real-life" patients with stable coronary artery disease (SCAD) according to the ISCHEMIA ...

Patients with SCAD and concomitant COPD are at high risk of cardiovascular adverse events, due to chronic inflammation, responsible of endothelial dysfunction, oxidative stress and heightened platelet reactivity (PR). The objective of this randomised clinical trial was to test if ticagrelor is superior to clopidogrel in improving endothelial function in patients with stable coronary artery dise...

OBJECTIVE To assess the prevalence, clinical presentation, therapeutic management and medium-term prognosis of spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD). METHODS Over a 5-year period, and out of a cath-lab database of 11,605 files, 23 cases of SCAD were confirmed by re-analysis of angiograms. Therapeutic management and in-hospital outcome were obtained from medical files and prospective f...

SPONTANEOUS CORONARY ARTERY DISSECTION (SCAD) REPRESENTS A DIAGNOSTIC CHALLENGE (1,2). In this study, we used a combined imaging strategy, intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT), in 8 patients with SCAD. The diagnosis of SCAD required the visualization of an intimomedial membrane with a double-lumen or intramural hematoma (Figs. 1, 2, and 3). Their mean age was 5...

Ethylmalonic encephalopathy is a devastating, infantile, autosomal recessive, metabolic disorder caused by defects in the mitochondrial sulfur dioxygenase, ETHE1, and characterized by ethylmalonic and methylsuccinic aciduria, lactic acidemia associated with developmental delay, orthostatic acrocyanosis, recurrent petechiae, chronic diarrhea, and abnormalities on brain MRI. The authors also repo...