Internal carotid artery occlusion in association with Crohn's disease

A 38-year-old white male with small bowel Crohn's disease presented with an acute right-sided cerebrovascular accident. He died 36 hr later and postmortem revealed thrombosis over the whole length of an otherwise completely normal left internal carotid artery. Histological examination of the artery revealed no abnormalities and in particular no evidence of arteritis. This brings the total number of such cases reported to three, but this is the first with postmortem data. The occurrence of such an event in a young person with normal carotid arteries and no other risk factors would suggest an association with his Crohn's disease, possibly as a result of a coagulation abnormality.