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Cervical artery dissection (CeAD) is among the most common causes of brain ischemia in young and middle-aged adults. Despite being relatively frequent, this condition's pathophysiology is poorly understood and difficult to study. This analysis compared three groups of patients, identified prospectively from 39 centers in Italy: (1) patients with sCeAD, (2) patients with acute stroke due to another cause different from sCeAD, and (3) healthy controls without stroke who were staff members at the centers. The authors matched each patient with sCeAD to one patient with non–CeAD stroke and one stroke-free control subject of the same age, sex, and race.
The study included 1468 patients with spontaneous events; the mean age was 47.3 years and 56.7%…