Keri Sprung works at the Texas Heart Institute.
She’s helped research and write papers on spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD) but when she developed symptoms in herself, she never made the connection.
“Then I developed this strange, whooshing sound and whirling sound in my ear that was in sync with my heartbeat,” explained Sprung, Vice President for Education at The Texas Heart Institute. “It was 24 hours a day. When I slept. So, I wasn’t sleeping well, wasn’t feeling great, had this excruciating headache, and my neck was really tense, and I just thought I was not sleeping well and stressed, and I was getting a little bit of vertigo.”
One day while talking to coworkers, she mentioned those symptoms.
“I just always have my stethoscope with me. So, I just pulled it out and listened to her artery, and she had a loud swooshing murmur, or a bruit, in her carotid artery and a full bounding pulse,” said Dr. Stephanie Coulter, Medical Director at The Texas Heart Institute. “She did have a complicated carotid artery dissection above the bone, inside the skull, which makes it hard to get to.”
Since the problem was inside her skull, initial tests falsely indicated she was fine. However, Dr. Coulter did not take that as the final answer. She pushed to find out what was happening.
“Keri had spontaneous carotid artery dissection after COVID, which may have contributed to the condition,” Dr. Coulter said.
“We know that COVID is an inflammatory disease, viral inflammatory disease, that causes inflammation of the whole arterial system and the heart as well. So, once it affects that arterial wall, it can happen anywhere where you get a stroke or you get a rupture,” Dr. Zvonimir Krajcer, Interventional Cardiologist, The Texas Heart Institute Center for Cardiovascular Care. “What looked really scary is there was a bulge in the artery. Not only that, there was a split in the wall, but there was, in addition to dissection, there is a bulge which we call a pseudo aneurysm. So, this could rupture at any point in time and cause massive bleeding and death.”
Dr. Krajcer said the condition is quite rare. He said it happens to about 2.5 patients per 100,000.
Sprung said her artery was almost entirely blocked and she had a stent placed inside to eliminate her chances of stroke and death.
“When something changes in you and you know that this hasn’t been the situation for weeks prior and something’s new, you need to speak up,” Sprung said. “If I had not said I have a headache, a vertigo feeling, it’s not going away and I described the sound, this wishing sound with my heartbeat. Then we might not ordered the right test and found it.”
“We did everything we could to make sure that she got the best treatment,” said Dr. Coulter. “After she had the event, we became even more, I would say obsessed with, you know, ‘what can we do for our population?’ So we’ve joined the national registry for SCAD and FMD, and we’re the only center in the state of Texas and kind of, for the whole southwest. So we’re getting patients from far and wide now.”
Dr. Krajcer said there are tests you can do to see if you’re at risk for SCAD.
The people who should get tested include: Those with a family history; People with fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD); People with elevated blood pressure, high blood pressure can weaken the arterial wall.