[Vascular Ehlers-Danlos syndrome]

Abstract

Vascular type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) is a rare inherited disease with an autosomal dominant trait. The mutation of the COL3A1 gene which encodes type III collagen, is responsible of early vascular (spontaneous arterial rupture or dissection), digestive (perforation) and obstetrical events (uterine and arterial rupture). Diagnosis of the disease is primarily clinical, especially in case of characteristic morphologic features. Diagnostic certainty is obtained by evidencing the mutation of the COL3A1 gene. Some arterial lesions are suggestive of the disease, as dissecting aneurysms of the internal carotid, of the iliac arteries, and of the anterior visceral aortic branches, fusiform aneurisms of the splenic artery, and the occurrence of a non traumatic direct carotid-cavernous fistula. The occurrence of a spontaneous peritonitis or of an extensive perineal tear after delivery should also draw physician's attention. Because of the unpredictability of arterial or organ rupture, any patient diagnosed with vascular type EDS presenting with an acute pain syndrome should be considered as a trauma situation and be investigated straightaway by CT-scan or MRI testing, in order to eliminate a life threatening complication.