Carotid artery dissection

nearly 5 yrs. ago our daughter, aged 31, suffered dissections to her left carotid artery and the vertebral arteries at the base of her skull.  she had strokes from which she recovered quite well.
just over a month ago, she suffered dissection of her right carotid artery and it has a pseudoaneurysm.  no stroke this time as she was on a low dose aspirin.  surgery or a stent were considered too risky to do.  she had 2 blood flow to the brain tests and all appears well.  she will be monitored by a neurologist.
no cause such as an underlying condition was found and these events were called 'spontaneous dissections'.  
she has been severley restricted in her activities - no running,swimming, rollerblading, yoga, contact sports, etc.
she is, of course, depressed.
my questions:  could there be an underlying genetic factor?  five female members of my maternal family had aneurysms and four passed away.  the one who survived was in her late 40's.  one who died was 7, another was 50ish and the others older.
the other question is: is there a relationship between cerebral aneurysms and these dissections?
thanks for any help.
                      

[PaulMD]

Hi there.

Cerebral aneurysms and artery dissections represent an inherent weakness in the blood vessel wall that makes them friable and prone to these conditions.  There is some form of genetic link with all of these, but it is not clear up to this point if this can indeed be inherited.

It is best that your daughter continue to be careful of the activities she do and be warry of her symptoms.  Other members of the family may also have to be worked up through MRI or MRA (magnetic resonance angiogram) just to detect if there are similar conditions (aneurysms or dissections).  Regards.

[pookiesmom349]

thank you for your response.  i thought that there must be some sort of connection. i find it very interesting that it is only the females in the family who have these problems.

i will continue talking to family members and hope to present the information to the neurological team that had cared for our daughter.  maybe it could be useful some day.

[Gouliee]

hi  i have a genetic condition called ehlers-danlos type 4 its a conected tissue disorder and it has just causesd 2 psydoaneurysm in my internal cartiod artery  my arterys are like tissue paper i guess and thats not good i have a disection in the artery leading to my leg they wont touch it cause it my fall apart. i would atleast ask a genetic doctor if the 6 types of this  condition or the many other connective tissue dissorders  that are out there.ill pray for your daughter.