Occipital stroke shortly after cannabis consumption.
There are several indications that imply cannabis consumption triggers cerebrovascular events. A right occipital ischemic stroke occurred in a 37-year-old Albanese man with a previously uneventful medical history, 15 min after having smoked a cigarette with approximately 250 mg of marijuana. Clinical manifestations of the stroke were left-sided hemiparesis, hemi-hypesthesia and blurred vision, which vanished spontaneously and almost completely after 3 days. He has been smoking joints regularly from the age of 27, with a frequency of 2-3 joints per week during the 6 months that preceded his stroke. Except for cigarette smoking and slight dyslipidaemia, classical risk factors for stroke/embolism were absent. Therefore, as the family history for cerebrovascular events, blood pressure, clotting tests, examinations for thrombophilia, vasculitis, extracranial and intracranial arteries and cardiac investigations were normal or respectively negative, the stroke was attributed to the chronic cannabis consumption.
Department of Neurology, Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung, Juchg, 25, 1130 Vienna, Austria. duarte@aonmail.at
Josef
J
Finsterer
Prainer
P
Christian
Kopsa
K
Wolfgang
D000328:Adult; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008385:Marijuana Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009778:Occipital Lobe; D020521:Stroke / Q000209:etiology*; D013997:Time Factors