Abstract
Abstract only Introduction: Chest pain is a common reason for emergency room visits. Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) remains a high mortality etiology of chest pain. Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is a rare cause of ACS in the general population, but a relatively common cause of ACS in young women. Case: Patient is a 29-year-old female with history of anxiety and fibroids that presented with chest pain. She described the chest pain as sharp, substernal, non-radiating that lasted for 10 minutes after eating dinner. The pain improved with leaning forward and resolved when lying on her stomach. She had a second episode of chest pain after 2 hours with similar characteristics which lasted 10 minutes. She was 4 months post-partum. She reported having a sore throat 4 days prior to the presentation. Troponin peaked at 0.173. ECG showed diffuse ST-elevation and PR depression in V3-V6 I II III aVF. TTE showed LVEF 65% and no wall motion abnormalities. CTA coronary showed 50-60% narrowing of mid LAD. Cardiac MR showed mild hypokinesis of mid-anteroseptal wall with associated subendocardial to midmyocardial delayed enhancement with focal elevations in myocardial native T1 and T2, and LVEF 53%. Coronary catheterization showed 50-60% stenosis in the mid-LAD distal to the first diagonal artery, there was no improvement in the stenosis after administration of intra-coronary nitroglycerin, there were no septals noted to arise from this area, consistent with diagnosis of SCAD (figure 1). Diagnosis: On initial evaluation, the etiology of her chest pain appeared to be myopericarditis. However, using CTA coronary, cardiac MR and coronary catheterization findings, the pain was more consistent with type 1 NSTEMI in the setting of SCAD. Patient was started on IV heparin, metoprolol tartrate, and aspirin. Conclusions: SCAD is a life-threating and often missed etiology of ACS. It requires a high index of suspicion and should be in the differential diagnosis in young women presenting with chest pain.