Spontaneous coronary artery dissection in a middle-age woman

Imaging of acquired coronary diseases: From children to adults

Acquired coronary diseases include aneurysms, fistulae, dissections, and stenosis. Aneurysms may occur secondarily to Kawasaki disease, a childhood vasculitis, the prognosis of which depends on the coronary involvement, or they may be degenerative, infectious, inflammatory, or traumatic in origin. Fistulae develop between the coronary arterial system and a pulmonary or bronchial artery, or cardiac cavity. Dissections may occur spontaneously or may be post-traumatic. These coronary abnormalities may be found incidentally or may present as complications, infarction or rupture. The goals of this article are to understand acquired childhood and adult coronary diseases and their usual means of presentation, the ways of investigating them, and the principles of their treatment.