Extracellular matrix protein signature in cervical artery dissection

Based on data from the Global Burden of Disease Study, the lifetime risk of stroke beyond the age of 25 approaches 25% and has shown a relative increase over the period from 1990 to 2016.1 Although stroke will more likely affect people at the age of 60 and beyond, we must constantly recall and investigate specific causes of stroke in our younger patients. Among these, cervical artery dissection (CeAD) is one of the leading causes of ischemic stroke.2 In most patients, spontaneous CeAD will remain a once in a lifetime event, but recent reports have found CeAD recurrences in up to 8% of cases in tertiary centers.3 With the majority of patients with CeAD being in their mid-40s, often with a healthy lifestyle and few, or no, vascular risk factors,4 CeAD poses a major disruption in their personal and professional life. Thus the question of whether such a traumatizing event might recur is of importance.