Clinical manifestations of internal carotid artery dissection

Abstract

Dissection is the blood entrance from the lumen to vascular wallthrough the intimal tear. Dissections more often occur in internalcarotid artery (ICA). The blood accumulating within the wall(intramural hematoma) may lead to: 1) the compression of thearterial lumen resulting in cerebral ischemia; 2) perivascular nervedamage causing headache, neck pain and Horner syndrome;3) block of the ostiums of the arteries arising from ICA and supplyingcranial nerves with consequent ischemia of these nerves. Inthis paper we present medical histories of three our patients (out of88) with ICA dissection and different clinical manifestations. Thequestions of diagnosis, differential diagnosis and treatment of theICA dissection are discussed.

Keywords

• dissection
• internal carotid artery
• ischemic stroke
• lower cranial nerve palsy
• isolated headache