Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 19, 2026
Multimodality Diagnosis of Mesenteric Ischemia
Published on: July 21, 2023
Postpartum spontaneous coronary, vertebral, and mesenteric artery dissections: a case report
Sean Spence1,2, Maneesh Sud1,2, Ravi Bajaj1,2
1Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Background:
Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rare cause of myocardial infarction that must always be considered on a clinician's differential diagnosis, particularly in patients <50-years old with a paucity of typical vascular risk factors.
Case Presentation:
We describe a case of a 33-year-old white woman, 3 weeks postpartum, presenting with retrosternal chest and back pain, neck pain and stiffness, and intermittent headaches. Subsequent workup revealed concurrent spontaneous dissections in three separate medium-sized arterial beds.
Conclusions:
She was successfully managed in a conservative fashion, highlighting that percutaneous or surgical revascularization can often be foregone in favor of conservative medical therapy.
