SCAD – Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection
Principal Investigator: Dr David Adlam
Angiographs of vessel before (A) and after (B) stenting.
Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) is an unpredictable event in which patients typically first present with a sudden, unexpected heart attack. The condition can affect all age groups and is recognised as a cause of heart attacks in young adults. Although both men and women can be affected by SCAD, the condition is more common in women, particularly during or shortly after pregnancy.
SCAD results from an acute bleed into the vessel wall of a coronary artery creating a false lumen (a lumen is the term for the inside of a blood vessel, the ‘tube’ down which the blood is supposed to flow). This accumulation of blood compresses the true lumen, restricting or preventing blood flow to the heart muscle. Little is currently known about the underlying causes of SCAD and its long-term outcomes, or indeed, how best to treat it.
The SCAD study was initially funded by a grant from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and the UK and Europe research portal is part of an international collaboration of patients, doctors and scientists who have come together to undertake research into the condition.
If you have had SCAD and wish to participate in research to help understand this condition, please register on our website here. Our research team will then contact you with further information. Registration does not commit you to participate.
If you are a medical professional and have a patient who has had SCAD please advise them of our research programme.
View the SCAD Newsletter or follow @BeatSCADUK
You can find a full list of the publications generated by this work so far here.