Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection in a Postpartum Female: Case Report and Simplified Algorithm for its Diagnosis and Management

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a rare, life-threatening cause of acute myocardial infarction that must always be considered in the differential diagnosis, particularly in young, healthy women with a paucity of typical risk factors for heart disease. We present a case of a 39-year-old White woman, three months postpartum, presenting with severe epigastric chest pain radiating to her neck. Subsequent workup using coronary angiography revealed spontaneous dissection of the distal left anterior descending artery. The patient was successfully managed by conservative treatment using low dose aspirin, metoprolol, and captopril, highlighting that hemodynamically stable patients with lesions in distal branches of coronary arteries and single-vessel disease can be successfully managed in a conservative fashion, without the need for surgical or percutaneous revascularization.