Association Between Autoimmune Diseases and Spontaneous Cervicocranial Arterial Dissection

• Published in: Frontiers in immunology Vol. 12; p. 820039
• Main Authors: Li, Hao, Song, Pu, Yang, Wei, Yang, Le, Diao, Shanshan, Huang, Shicun, Wang, Yiqing, Xu, Xingshun, Yang, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 21.01.2022
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Aneurysm, Dissecting - diagnosis; Aneurysm, Dissecting - epidemiology; Aneurysm, Dissecting - etiology; autoimmune; Autoimmune Diseases - complications; Autoimmune Diseases - diagnosis; Autoimmune Diseases - epidemiology; Autoimmunity; Biomarkers; Case-Control Studies; cervicocranial arterial dissection; Comorbidity; Disease Susceptibility; Female; Giant Cell Arteritis - pathology; Humans; Immunology; inflammatory; inflammatory autoimmune disease; Male; Middle Aged; neurological disease; Odds Ratio; cervicocranial arterial dissection; inflammatory autoimmune disease; autoimmune; neurological disease; inflammatory
• ISSN: 1664-3224; 1664-3224
• DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.820039

A series of biopsies and reports showed autoimmune diseases might be involved in the process of local inflammation related to spontaneous cervicocranial arterial dissection (SCCAD) occurrence. This retrospective case-control study examined the association between SCCADs and autoimmune diseases in patients and control subjects from 2014 to 2020. SCCAD patients and age/sex-matched control subjects were recruited, and clinical data were collected. SCCAD was confirmed by digital subtraction angiography or high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging. The study included 215 SCCAD patients and 430 control subjects. Totally, 135 (62.8%) of the 215 cases were found SCCAD in the anterior circulation, 26 (12.0%) patients involved multiple vessels. Autoimmune disease occurred in 27 (12.6%) cases with SCCAD and 4 (0.9%) control subjects (p<0.001). A conditional multivariable logistic regression model was used to calculate the odds ratio for SCCAD among patients with a history of autoimmune disease, adjusting for hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and smoking. After adjustment, autoimmune diseases were associated with SCCAD (p<0.001). After sub-analysis by a similar modeling strategy, significant associations were still observed in different subgroups, such as female group and male group as well as intramural hematoma (IMH) group and Non-IHM group. The association of SCCAD with autoimmune disease suggested that autoimmune mechanisms may be involved in some etiologies of SCCAD.