Guidance Directed Care of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection: A Healthcare System-Based Experience

Data on treatment of spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) has evolved with guidance from national societies beginning around 2018. Given emerging guidance and relatively uncommon presentation of SCAD, we hypothesized that a specialized SCAD clinic would improve guidance-based care.

We utilized a system-wide electronic medical record search to identify individuals with SCAD diagnosis from 2018 to 2023. All diagnostic angiograms were reviewed to verify diagnosis. We analyzed frequency of guidance-based care since 2018 system-wide. We also compared guidance-based care for individuals with index visits to the SCAD outpatient clinic as compared to non-SCAD clinic providers from initiation of specialty clinic in 2021.

Differences were observed in pregnancy and contraception discussions (88 % vs 0 %, p < 0.001) among pre-menopausal individuals in SCAD clinic compared to non-SCAD clinics. Safety of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in menopausal women was addressed more by SCAD clinic providers (85 % vs 7 %, p < 0.001). There was more fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) screening in SCAD clinic (100 % vs 30 %, p < 0.001). Among individuals with migraines, there was more discussion of triggering medications (triptans) in SCAD clinic (80 % vs 14 %, p = 0.008). In individuals prescribed statins not by primary prevention guidelines and without atherosclerosis, there was a trend toward more discussion of statin use in SCAD clinic follow up vs non-SCAD clinic providers (63 % vs 17 %, p = 0.06).

Individuals with follow up in SCAD clinic compared to non-SCAD clinics were more likely to have future pregnancy and contraception counseling, discussion of HRT safety, and FMD screening following index outpatient visit. Future quality improvement initiatives will target these aspects of guidance-based care among non-SCAD clinic providers with integration into cardiology fellow training.