Spontaneous dissection of the extracranial vertebral artery with spinal subarachnoid haemorrhage in a patient with Behçet's disease

Abstract

A 40-year-old man with known definite Behçet's disease (BD) was admitted with confusional state which had started 4 days before admission with an acute headache and vomiting. Neurological examination revealed confusion, stiff neck, right facial weakness, left hemiparesis, dysartria and truncal ataxia. CSF was haemorrhagic and xanthochromic. Cranial CT scans were negative, but MRI showed a right pontine hyperintense lesion on T2-weighted images. Bilateral carotid angiograms were normal. Right vertebral angiogram showed findings consistent with a dissection at the V2 segment of the artery. At the level of the fifth cervical vertebra, a radiculomedullary branch of the vertebral artery with an aneurysmal dilatation in its intradural portion was notable. This case shows that, in BD, aneurysm formation can also occur in a spinal artery and spontaneous vertebral artery dissection can be seen.