Clinical Features of Patients With Cervical Artery Dissection and Fibromuscular Dysplasia

A retrospective review of the multicenter IPSYS CeAD (Italian project on stroke in young adults cervical artery dissection) study was performed from January 2000 to June 2019. Of 1283 patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissection, the mean age was 48 years, 545 were women (43%), and 103 (8%) had a diagnosis of coexistent cerebrovascular fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD). More of the patients with FMD were women. A history of migraine and intracranial aneurysm before the event were associated with FMD. FMD and a history of migraine predicted for recurrent spontaneous cervical artery dissection (3% of patients) after a median follow-up of ∼3 years. The risk factor profile for patients with spontaneous cervical artery dissection and FMD differs from that for patients without FMD. Migraine and FMD were independent predictors of spontaneous cervical artery dissection recurrence.