Associated Conditions

Some other conditions and diseases, such as Fibromuscular Dysplasia (FMD) and rare connective tissue disorders, such as Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Marfan Syndrome and Loeys-Dietz Syndrome, have been found to be associated with SCAD. More common connective tissue disorders, such as hypermobility, have also been found in SCAD patients. Research is ongoing to discover what the links might be.

It’s important to note that not all SCAD patients are diagnosed with another condition, so having SCAD does not necessarily mean you will have any of these disorders.

Once diagnosed with SCAD, the current consensus recommendation is that a head to hip scan should be done to look for abnormalities of other arteries in the body. (European Society of Cardiology SCAD position paper 2018). Get a summary of the European Position Paper via the Downloads form.

However, it is important to realise that important abnormalities in other arteries which require specific treatment or monitoring are unusual.

Furthermore, unless a patient shows any clinical features of hereditary connective tissue disorders, the current recommendation is that genetic testing is not required.

An editorial commentary on a paper from the Mayo Clinic was published in November 2020 looking at SCAD and autoimmune diseases. This essentially finds no definite link between autoimmune disease and SCAD suggesting where these occur together it is more likely to be a coincidence rather than a causal relationship.

The information below provides a brief overview of the conditions. For in-depth information, please go to the websites of the organisations that specialise in these conditions, some of which are listed here.

We’ve also included information about Heart Failure. In most SCAD survivors the heart muscle injury following a SCAD heart attack is small and heart failure would not be expected, but in a few patients the injury is larger and some of these patients may experience symptoms of heart failure.

All medical content has been approved by Dr David Adlam, Senior Lecturer, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester and lead researcher on the SCAD research project at Glenfield Hospital/University of Leicester.