RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Spontaneous coronary artery dissection in a postpartum e-cigarette smoker
JF BMJ Case Reports
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP bcr-2018-225194
DO 10.1136/bcr-2018-225194
VO 2018
A1 Navid Ahmed
A1 Aleksandr Kalininskiy
A1 Himali Gandhi
A1 Jooyoung Julia Shin
YR 2018
UL http://casereports.bmj.com/content/2018/bcr-2018-225194.abstract
AB Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) is a rare but lethal cause of acute coronary syndrome that occurs in young women during the peripartum/postpartum periods. We present a case of a 41-year-old woman with no significant medical history, but was a habitual e-cigarette smoker who presented with atypical chest pain 2 weeks after an uncomplicated delivery while breast feeding. The patient was found to have elevated cardiac enzymes and ST segment elevations in the anterior leads. An urgent cardiac catheterisation was performed, which revealed dissection and occlusion of the left anterior descending artery, and a drug-eluting stent was placed that resulted in the resolution of chest pain. Physiological changes during the postpartum period may be linked to an increased risk of developing SCAD.1 In addition, e-cigarette smoking is associated with increased oxidative stress and sympathetic activity, which may predispose patients to an increased risk of acute coronary syndrome.