title: Spontaneous dissections of cervicocephalic arteries in childhood and adolescence.
abstract: Among 263 consecutive patients with spontaneous cervicocephalic arterial dissections evaluated at the Mayo Clinic, 18 (6.8%) were 18 years of age or younger (mean age, 12 years). The dissection involved the cervical arteries in 11 patients and the intracranial arteries in seven. Extracranially, the internal carotid artery was involved in eight patients, the vertebral artery in two, and both arteries in one. Intracranially, only the anterior circulation was affected. All the patients had cerebral or retinal ischemic symptoms, usually preceded by headache. Death occurred in a 13-year-old boy with intracranial arterial dissection and coarctation of the aorta. For the 17 remaining patients, the follow-up period ranged from 1 to 21 years. A complete or good clinical recovery occurred in 10 of the 11 patients with cervical arterial dissection but in only four of the seven with dissection of intracranial arteries. Recurrent arterial dissection occurred in two patients with cervical arterial dissections and in one patients with intracranial arterial dissection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurologic Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905.
authors.forename: W I
authors.initials: WI
authors.lastname: Schievink
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mokri
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: Piepgras
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000784:Aortic Dissection / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D014711:Vertebral Artery / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*