Case Report
Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection/Intramural
Haematoma in Young Women with ST-Elevation Myocardial
Infarction: (It Is Not Always a Plaque Rupture Event)
George Kassimis,
1
Athanasios Manolis,
1
and Jonathan N. Townend
2
1
Department of Cardiology, Asklepeion General Hospital, Athens, Greece
2
Department of Cardiology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, UK
Correspondence should be addressed to George Kassimis; gksup@yahoo.gr
Received 31 July 2015; Revised 8 October 2015; Accepted 8 October 2015
Academic Editor: Man-Hong Jim
Copyright © 2015 George Kassimis et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is an unusual, but increasingly recognized, cause of ST-elevation myocardial
infarction (STEMI), especially among younger patients without conventional risk factors for coronary artery disease (CAD).
Although dissection of the coronary intima or media is a hallmark fnding, hematoma formation within the vessel wall is ofen
present. It remains unclear whether dissection or hematoma is the primary event, but both may cause luminal stenosis and
occlusion. Te diagnosis of SCAD is made principally with invasive coronary angiography, although adjunctive intracoronary
imaging modalities may increase the diagnostic yield. In STEMI patients, the decision whether to pursue primary percutaneous
coronary intervention (PCI) or appropriate conservative medical therapy is based on clinical presentation, the extent of the
dissection, the critical anatomy involvement, and the amount of ischaemic myocardium at risk. In this case report, we present
two cases of young women with SCAD and STEMI, successfully treated with primary PCI. We briefy illustrate the characteristic
aspects of the angiographic presentation and intravascular ultrasound-guided treatment. SCAD should always be considered in
young STEMI patients without conventional risk factors for CAD with primary angioplasty to be required in patients with ongoing
myocardial ischemia.
1. Introduction
We present two cases of young women with spontaneous
coronary artery dissection (SCAD) and ST-elevation myocar-
dial infarction (STEMI) successfully treated with primary
percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).
2. Case 1
A 50-year-old postmenopausal woman with no cardiovascu-
lar risk factors was admitted with an anterior STEMI. Te
coronary angiogram (CA) demonstrated the right coronary
artery (RCA) dominant and normal (Figure 1(a)); the lef
main stem and circumfex vessels all appeared normal, but
there was a very unusual appearance in the mid lef anterior
descendent (LAD), of an almost subtotally occluded long
tubular segment of LAD disease afer a large diagonal branch
(Figure 1(b)) with TIMI 2 coronary fow, which did not
respond to 200 micrograms of intracoronary nitroglycerine.
Tere was a strong suspicion that this was an intramural
haematoma (IH), rather than a plaque rupture event, and
afer predilatation with a 2/20 mm balloon at 8 atm, we
performed intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging. Tis
clearly demonstrated that proximally and distally to the
abnormal fndings the vessel was entirely normal with no evi-
dence of atheroma. However, there was a very long segment
of about 70–80 mm in length of IH, which was compressing
the true lumen (Figures 1(c) and 1(d)). Afer further predi-
latation with a 2.5/20 mm balloon at 10 atm and further 200
micrograms of intracoronary nitrate the fow picked up and
the ST segments then settled and the patient became pain-
free (Figure 1(e)). We electively did not stent the LAD due to
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Cardiology
Volume 2015, Article ID 597234, 5 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/597234