UVA Health researchers have identified a “distinct and temporary pattern of gene behavior during cervical artery dissections, a leading cause of stroke in young people.”

These gene changes “may help explain the dissections and could lead to new ways to prevent potentially debilitating strokes among the young.” Finding ways to prevent these dissections is important, especially because they can cause many years of disability in younger patients.

Cervical artery dissections often occur without warning, and they are “responsible for 1 in 5 strokes among people under 55.” They are tears within walls of arteries that feed blood to the brain, and they allow blood to pool and cause blockages that starve the brain of oxygen. They can be caused by minor neck trauma or certain genetic disorders, but “most cases are deemed ‘spontaneous’ and have no obvious cause.”

Researchers studied 37 patients with the condition and found that they had a “’signature’ pattern of gene activity at the time of the dissections, akin to patterns seen in other sudden vascular events such as aneurysms.” There were substantial differences found in 11 genes’ activity shortly after their dissections compared to the healthy study participants. That activity then changed after their dissections, suggesting the distinctive activity was temporary.