Vertebral artery dissection in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: A case series and literature review

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Shanmugalingam, Renuka
Pour, Nina Reza
Chuah, Siang Chye
Vo, Thi Mong
Beran, Roy
Hennessy, Annemarie
Makris, Angela
Griffith University Author(s)
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2016
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Abstract

Background: Arterial dissection is a rare complication of pregnancy and puerperium. There have been reports of aortic, coronary and cervical artery dissection in association with preeclampsia, however, vertebral artery dissection is rarely reported particularly in the antenatal setting in the presence of a Hypertensive Disorder of Pregnancy (HDP).The general annual incidence of symptomatic spontaneous cervicocephalic arterial dissection is 0.0026 % and a data registry reported that 2.4 % of these occurred in the post-partum period. The actual incidence of vertebral artery dissection in HDP is unknown as the current literature consists of case series and reports only with most documenting adverse outcomes. Given the presence of collateral circulation, unilateral vertebral artery dissections may go unrecognised and may be more common than suspected. Case presentation: We present a case series of four patients with vertebral artery dissection in association with HDP, two of which occurred in the antenatal setting and two in the post-partum setting. All our patients had favourable outcome with no maternal neurological deficit and live infants. Our discussion covers the proposed pathophysiology of vertebral artery dissection in HDP and the management of it. Conclusion: Our case series highlights the need to consider VAD an important differential diagnosis when assessing pregnant women with headache and neck pain particularly in the context of HDP.

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BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth

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16

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© 2016 The Author(s). Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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Subject

Nursing

Health services and systems

Public health

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Obstetrics & Gynecology

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Vertebral artery dissection

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Shanmugalingam, R; Pour, NR; Chuah, SC; Vo, TM; Beran, R; Hennessy, A; Makris, A, Vertebral artery dissection in hypertensive disorders of pregnancy: A case series and literature review, BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2016, 16

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