Sumatriptan can alleviate headaches due to carotid artery dissection.
Cluster headaches can be mimicked by a spontaneous carotid artery dissection. We report a 45-year-old man with a spontaneous carotid artery dissection whose unilateral headache responded to sumatriptan. An oral dose of 50 mg of sumatriptan relieved 90% of the pain after 2 hours. A second dose the next day achieved similar results within 4 hours. The diagnosis of dissection was made later by magnetic resonance angiogram and conventional angiography. This case illustrates that a positive response to a triptan can not be used to distinguish the first attack of cluster headache from a carotid artery dissection.
Leira
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Souers Stroke Institute, Department of Neurology, St. Louis University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo, USA.
Cruz-Flores
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Leacock
R O
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Abdulrauf
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D002340:Carotid Artery Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D003027:Cluster Headache / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012422:Rupture, Spontaneous; D018170:Sumatriptan / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D014662:Vasoconstrictor Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D014662:Vasoconstrictor Agents; D018170:Sumatriptan