title: Death from spontaneous coronary artery dissection in a healthy postmenopausal woman.
abstract: Spontaneous dissection of the coronary arteries, in the absence of trauma, is an unusual but well-documented entity that occurs usually in middle-aged women. It is a rare cause of sudden death and myocardial infarction. Coronary eosinophilic arteritis is suggested to result in a predisposition to intimal disruption and dissection. We present the case of the sudden death of a previous healthy, 53-year-old postmenopausal female, while working, in a town of Thessalia in Greece. The cause of death was left anterior descending coronary dissection with histologic findings of eosinophilic arteritis and autoimmune thyroiditis.
authors.affiliation: Forensic Department of Larissa, Ministry of Justice, Larissa, Greece. elzagg@yahoo.gr
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zagelidou
authors.forename: Roubini
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leodari
authors.forename: Zoi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Roupa
authors.forename: Dimitrios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maras
authors.forename: Despina
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sapountzi-Krepia
authors.forename: Anastasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Terzis
mesh_terms: D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000150:complications*; D001167:Arteritis / Q000473:pathology; D003323:Coronary Aneurysm / Q000150:complications*; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology*; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D013967:Thyroiditis, Autoimmune / Q000473:pathology