Myxoma in the carotid artery. Myxomatous occlusion of internal carotid artery.
BACKGROUND
We describe a patient with an unusual cause of internal carotid artery occlusion resulting in a stroke.


METHODS
A 41-year-old woman presented with a typical acute right middle cerebral artery territory infarct. Her hematological and cardiological status was assessed, including all extracranial vessels. Carotid angiography and a biopsy were performed of the occluded right internal carotid artery and demonstrated a myxoma. Cardiac investigations to determine the source of the myxoma, including transthoracic and transesophageal echocardiograms, CT and yo-yo CT scans, and MRI of the heart, were normal. No residual tumor or potential source of the tumor was found.


CONCLUSIONS
The cause of stroke was a myxomatous occlusion of the right internal carotid artery. An entire cardiac tumor may have embolized with no detectable residual tumor in the heart; alternatively, a myxoma may have originated as a primary tumor in the carotid artery. To our knowledge, no primary myxoma has been reported to have originated in a blood vessel.
Robbin
N A
NA
Department of Neurology, School of Pathology, South African Institute for Medical Research, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Landless
P
P
Cooper
K
K
Fritz
V U
VU
D000328:Adult; D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D002343:Carotid Artery, Internal; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000209:etiology*; D004617:Embolism / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006261:Headache / Q000209:etiology; D006338:Heart Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D009232:Myxoma / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D009382:Neoplasms, Unknown Primary / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis