What is a SCAD?
I decided to do this blog in attempt to reach out and hopefully connect with those who have been diagnosed with this rare form of heart disease. What I had was called a Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, also known as a SCAD. What it's left me with is permanent Coronary Artery Disease. So what is a SCAD? A SCAD happens when the inner walls of one of the major arteries of the heart dissect without warning. Meaning they fall apart. There are three walls in your arteries, and when they dissect, the blood forms a small clot blocking the flow of oxygen to the rest of the heart muscle. This gives various symptoms (palpitations, shortness of breath, chest pain), often mimicking a heart attack. And then it actually turns into a heart attack. SCADs account for less than 1% of all Coronary Artery Disease related heart attacks. They typically happen without any pre-existing health conditions or presence of heart disease. The majority of patients who have suffered a ...