Abstract WP204: Real World Data On Spontaneous Cervical Artery Dissection From A Comprehensive Stroke Center

Introduction: Cervical artery dissection (CAD) is a common cause of stroke in the young and carries a high risk of early recurrence. We aim to compare the characteristics of patients from a real-world cohort to those from prior randomized controlled trials. Methods: We pooled data from consecutive patients with a diagnosis of spontaneous CAD treated at a comprehensive stroke center who were followed for at least 90 days. We excluded patients with traumatic dissection and those with primary intracranial hemorrhage in the setting of trauma or dissection. We compared the baseline characteristics and stroke recurrence rates in our cohort to the TREAT-CAD (2021) and CADISS (2019) trials. We report recurrence rates in patients treated with single antiplatelet (SAPT), dual antiplatelet (DAPT), and anticoagulation (AC). Results: 80 patients with CAD met our inclusion criteria. Our study sample characteristics differ from TREAT-CAD and CADISS, with our cohort more likely to have hypertension and diabetes but less likely to have a smoking history. The rate of recurrent stroke at 90 days was numerically higher in our patient cohort (6.3%) compared to TREAT-CAD (3.6%) and CADISS (1.6%). The rates of recurrent stroke were 8.6% (3/35) with SAPT, 4.2% (1/24) with DAPT, and 5% (1/20) with AC strategies. Conclusions: Characteristics of a real-world CAD population differ from those enrolled in clinical trials with an overall higher rate of recurrent stroke but comparable rates among patients treated with DAPT and AC. The ongoing STOP-CAD study will compare DAPT to AC with a substantially larger number of patients, with an estimated projection of at least 3000 patients in a multi-center international cohort.