[A case with frequent episodes of transient ischemic attack presenting the Wallenberg syndrome before and after the onset of brain infarction].
A 52-year-old man with diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia and smoking habit, experienced transient ischemic attacks (TIAs) with symptoms of left orbital pain, left blepharoptosis and hoarseness lasting for five minutes on March 10, 1997. Subsequently, the same symptoms repeated once or twice daily. On March 28, he had dysphagia, numbness and disturbance of pain and temperature sensation (segmental dissociated sensory disturbance) on the right side of the body above the level of the Th10, the right upper limb and face. The deficits persisted for more than 24 hours. Angiographic studies revealed an occlusion of the left vertebral artery immediately after branching of the posterior inferior cerebellar artery. MRI demonstrated a hyperintense lesion on MRI T2 weighted image in the left lateral medulla. About three months after the completed stroke, he had six episodes of TIAs of left Horner's sign and hoarseness. To our knowledge, this is the rare case that had frequent TIAs presenting the Wallenberg syndrome before and after the onset of lateral medullary infarction. We speculate that the TIAs resulted from microembolism from the proximal end of occluted left vertebral artery and failure of the microcirculation in and around the lateral portion of the medulla oblongata.
Isa
K
K
Kimura
K
K
Yasaka
M
M
Minematsu
K
K
Yamaguchi
T
T
D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000209:etiology*; D014854:Lateral Medullary Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008526:Medulla Oblongata / Q000098:blood supply; D008833:Microcirculation; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence