Chest
Selected ReportsOnset During Exercise of Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection and Sudden Death: Occurrence in a Trained Athlete: Case Report and Review of Prior Cases
Section snippets
Case Report
A 41-year-old male marathon runner was admitted to the hospital after cardiac arrest. He had no history of heart disease and was in excellent health. It was his practice to run 110 km/wk; he had raced in nine New York City marathons. He had no history of diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, or drug use. He had stopped smoking 6 years previously. He had no family history of coronary disease.
On the day of presentation, the patient and a friend were running when he experienced the sudden onset
Discussion
Spontaneous dissection of a coronary artery, in the absence of atherosclerotic coronary narrowing or dissection of the aorta, is a rare event that occurs predominantly in young women, often in the peripartum period. Coronary dissection is often fatal; the diagnosis is made at autopsy in 75% of cases.1
To our knowledge, we have reviewed all reported cases of coronary dissection reported in the English literature. Besides this case, exercise-related spontaneous coronary dissection with otherwise
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