[Thrombolysis in case of ischemic stroke caused by aortic dissection]

Seldom, an acute aortic dissection can be the etiology of an acute ischemic stroke. The aortic dissection typically presents with severe chest pain, but in pain-free dissection, which ranges between 5-15% of the case, the neurological symptoms can obscure the sypmtos of the dissection. By the statistical data, there are 15-20 similar cases in Hungary in a year. In this study we present the case history of an acute ischemic stroke caused by aortic dissection, which is the first hungarian publication in this topic. A 59-year-old man was addmitted with right-gaze-deviation, acute left-sided weakness, left central facial palsy and dysarthric speech. An acute right side ischemic stroke was diagnosed by physical examination without syptoms of acute aortic dissection. Because, according to the protocol it was not contraindicated, a systemic intravenous thrombolysis was performed. The neurological sypmtoms disappeared and there were no complication or hypodensity on the brain computed tomography (CT). 36 hours after the thrombolysis, the patient become restlessness and hypoxic with back pain, without neurological abnormality. A chest CT was performed because of the suspition of the aortic dissection, and a Stanford-A type dissection was verified. After the acute aortic arch reconstruction the patient died, but there was no bleeding complication at the dissection site caused by the thrombolysis. This case report draws attention to the fact that aortic dissection can cause acute ischemic stroke. Although it is difficult to prove it retrospectively, we think the aortic dissection, without causing any symptoms or complain, had already been present before the stroke. In our opinion both the history of our patient and literature reviews confirms that in acute stroke the thrombolysis had no complication effect on the aortic dissection but ceased the neurological symptoms. If the dissection had been diagnosed before the thrombolysis, the aortic arch reconstruction would have been the first step of the treatment, without thrombolysis.