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Kim, Yun, Park, and Jeong: Vertebral Artery Dissection Presented with Monoplegia by Cervical Radiculopathy
Case Report

The Ewha Medical Journal 2014; 37(1): 41-45.

Published online: 25 March 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12771/emj.2014.37.1.41

Vertebral Artery Dissection Presented with Monoplegia by Cervical Radiculopathy

Sung-Hee Kim, Ji Young Yun, Kee Duk Park, Jee Hyang Jeong

Department of Neurology, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Jee Hyang Jeong. Department of Neurology, Ewha Womans University School of Medicine, 1071 Anyangcheon-ro, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul 158-710, Korea. Tel: 82-2-2650-2776, Fax: 82-2-2650-5958, jjeong@ewha.ac.kr

Received 15 August 2013       Accepted 24 February 2014

Copyright © 2014. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Vertebral artery dissection (VAD) is one of important causes of posterior circulation strokes in young age patients. Typical presentations of VAD are occipital headache or posterior neck pain, with various signs arising from brainstem or cerebellar infarctions. Muscular weakness or sensory change of an ipsilateral arm owing to cervical nerve root involvement in association with the VAD has been reported very rarely. Herein we describe two unusual manifestations of extracranial VAD, which presented with monoplegia of single upper limb.

Keywords: Vertebral artery dissection, Monoplegia, Radiculopathy

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1
(A) T1 weighted and (B) T2 weighted C-spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of patient 1. Cervical MRI study shows high and isosignal intensity of the wall thickening in left vertebral artery (arrow) and combined luminal narrowing. Definite spinal cord lesion is not observed.
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Fig. 2
Three-dimensional computed tomography angiography of patient 1. Compared with a diameter of the right vertebral artery, left vertebral artery at the levels from the C6 to the C2 (arrow) is diffusely narrowed.
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Fig. 3
Cerebral angiography of patient 1. Cerebral 4-vessel angiography shows diffuse narrowing of left vertebral artery (A. arrow) compared with the diameter of right vertebral artery (B). These results are suggestive of left vertebral artery dissection.
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Fig. 4
(A) T1 weighted and (B) T2 weighted cervical spine MRI images of patient 2. In T1 weighted image, signal voiding of right vertebral artery (arrow) is narrower than that of left vertebral artery. Thickening with high signal intensity (arrow) is also noted on T2 weighted image.
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Fig. 5
Cerebral angiography of patient 2. This study reveals the luminal irregularity and narrowing of right vertebral artery (A, arrow) compared with the diameter of left vertebral artery (B), which are compatible with the arterial dissection.
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Fig. 6
Follow-up 3-dimensional computed tomography (CT) angiography of patient 2. After anticoagulation treatment, reconstructed cerebral CT angiography shows a recovery of the luminal narrowing of right vertebral artery (arrow).
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