Background: Non-atherosclerotic spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is defined as a non-traumatic and non-iatrogenic separation of the coronary arterial wall. SCAD is a highly uncommon cause of myocardial infarction (0.1 to 0.4 %).
Case presentation: 40-year-old African American woman, G1T1P0A0L2, with a past medical history of tobacco abuse and obesity who had uncomplicated cesarean section delivery for healthy twins two weeks prior presented with substernal, sudden onset chest pain. The pain radiated to left arm and back, pressure-like, and is associated with nausea, vomiting, and dyspnea.
On examination she was within normal limits except for a well-healed C-section wound. An electrocardiogram showed normal sinus rhythm with Nonspecific ST Abnormality. The first set of troponins less than 0.03, the second set shows troponins 0.18 and D-dimer 2340. The chest x-ray was unremarkable. An echocardiogram showed only mild to moderate mitral valve regurgitation. CT angiography of the chest showed no evidence of pulmonary embolism. She was started on a heparin drip and catheterization the next day showed no atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, but SCAD of inferior diagonal first branch noted. No intervention was done, heparin was stopped. The patient was started on aspirin, statin, Clopidogrel, Metoprolol, and Lisinopril per cardiology recommendation.
Conclusions: As an internist and primary care provider, we should keep Non-atherosclerotic SCAD in mind when a young female patient presents with acute chest pain. More studies are needed to find out the optimal management.
Current recommended conservative medical management includes long-term aspirin, beta blocker, and one year of clopidogrel, with the addition of a statin in patients with dyslipidemia.
