What is an arterial dissection?

What is an arterial dissection?

Arterial dissection refers to the abnormal, and usually abrupt, formation of a tear along the inside wall of an artery.

Can you survive SCAD?

Doctors used to view SCAD as frequently fatal but now think the mortality rate is low, ranging between 1% and 5%. But SCAD happens again more than previously believed, returning in more than 20% of people followed for a decade. Early and proper diagnosis is crucial to save lives and prevent sudden cardiac death.

How do you fix a coronary artery dissection?

The goal of treatment for SCAD is to restore blood flow to your heart. Sometimes, this healing will occur naturally. In others, doctors may have to restore blood flow by opening the artery with a balloon or stent. Bypass surgery may also be used.

What is the survival rate of SCAD?

Initial reviews of SCAD reported a mortality rate of 70% (11). More recently, the outcome of SCAD has been reported to be more favourable (6,12), with one review suggesting a survival rate of 82% (8).

How serious is an arterial dissection?

In severe cases, arterial dissection can be fatal. Arterial dissections are treated by the UCSF Pediatric Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease Center, the only comprehensive cerebrovascular disease center for children in the country, staffed by the world’s leading experts in pediatric stroke and cerebrovascular disease.

Is SCAD serious?

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection — sometimes referred to as SCAD — is an uncommon emergency condition that occurs when a tear forms in a blood vessel in the heart. SCAD can slow or block blood flow to the heart, causing a heart attack, abnormalities in heart rhythm or sudden death.

Is an artery dissection painful?

Pain is the initial symptom of a spontaneous internal carotid artery dissection presenting to a physician. Headache (including neck and facial pain) is usually described as constant and severe and is commonly ipsilateral to the dissected artery.

How common is SCAD?

SCAD can occur at any age, but most cases occur in otherwise healthy people between the ages of 30 and 50. SCAD is far more common in women than men. In one study of 440 cases of SCAD that occurred at a single hospital between 1931 and 2008, 98 percent involved women.

Does the aorta carry blood away from the heart?

As an artery, the aorta carries blood away from the heart. (Most arteries carry oxygenated blood.) The aorta plays an essential part in supplying oxygenated blood to all of the body except the heart, which gets its blood supply from arteries attached at the very base or root of the aorta.

What is an artery dissection?

An arterial dissection is a tear in the inside lining of an artery in the head or neck that supplies blood flow to the brain.

Do arteries lead from the heart or to the heart?

Arteries carry oxygenated blood away from the heart to the tissues, except for pulmonary arteries, which carry blood to the lungs for oxygenation (usually veins carry deoxygenated blood to the heart but the pulmonary veins carry oxygenated blood as well). There are two types of unique arteries.

What are the cardiac conditions?

Cardiovascular disease generally refers to conditions that involve narrowed or blocked blood vessels that can lead to a heart attack, chest pain (angina) or stroke. Other heart conditions, such as those that affect your heart’s muscle, valves or rhythm, also are considered forms of heart disease.

What is an arterial dissection? Arterial dissection refers to the abnormal, and usually abrupt, formation of a tear along the inside wall of an artery. Can you survive SCAD? Doctors used to view SCAD as frequently fatal but now think the mortality rate is low, ranging between 1% and 5%. But SCAD happens again more…