Cervical Artery Dissection in Patients of African Ancestry

The majority of published data in cervical artery dissection (CeAD), a common cause of stroke in young adults, derive from populations of European ancestry (EA), including a recent genome-wide study identifying an association with the rs9349379 polymorphism of the PHACTR1 gene. Little is known about CeAD in individuals of African ancestry (AA) despite robust epidemiological data showing increased risk of stroke at younger ages. We hypothesize that AA patients with CeAD have different epidemiology and clinical profiles compared to those of EA, and a different genetic architecture related to rs9349379 of the PHACTR1 gene.

We searched a single-center database of CeAD to identify AA and EA patients. We compared differential prevalence of CeAD versus all young stroke between AA and EA patients. We characterized clinical profiles via electronic medical record review. Data include descriptive statistics reported as medians or percentages. We also obtained publicly available allele frequencies of rs9349379 in AA and EA populations.

AA patients comprise 7% of CeAD cases and 27% of young stroke cases while EA patients comprise 90% of CeAD cases and 70% of young stroke cases. Prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hyperlipidemia were 74, 30, and 50%, respectively, in AA patients compared to 37, 6, and 25% in EA patients. Allele frequencies for the CeAD risk allele, rs9349379(A), are higher in AA populations compared to EA populations.

AA patients represent a smaller proportion of CeAD cases compared to young stroke cases at our center. AA patients suffering CeAD have higher prevalence of both vascular risk factors and frequency of the CeAD risk allele compared to EA patients. These findings suggest a complex interplay between traditional vascular risk factors and genetic predisposition underlying CeAD pathogenesis. Further prospective research is needed to clarify these associations and disparities.