Dolichoectasia and multifocal simultaneous intracranial haemorrhages.
Dolichoectasia is found primarily in aged individual with atherosclerotic disease. It presents with brain stem compression and stroke, which could be ischaemic or haemorrhagic. Even if severe atherosclerosis is thought to play a pivotal role, new evidence suggest that the internal elastic laminae is disrupted, intracranially and extracranially, so multiorganic involvement with various clinical presentations can occur. We present a rare association of multiorganic dolichoectasia debuting with multiple intracranial haemorrhages. A 79-year-old woman presented with altered mental status and left hemiplegia. The work up demonstrated brain arteries dolichoectasia and an abdominal aortic aneurysm with multiple site intraparenchymal haemorrhages. In this case, the presentation of multiple site dolichoectasia and multiple haemorrhages is probably linked to a systemic "media disease" that affected the media of small, medium and large arteries rather than a coincidental finding.
University of Miami/Leonard M Miller School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 1387, 1120 NW 14th Street, Miami, FL 33136, USA.
Jose
J
Gutierrez
David
D
Adams
Leticia
L
Tornes
Richard
R
Isaacson
Clinton B
CB
Wright