[A case of cough hemiplegia]

We reported a patient with internal carotid artery occlusion (ICAO) who developed cough-induced transient hemiplegia. A 63-year-old man with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease experienced several episodes of cough-induced left hemiplegia during drinking and smoking. Selective cerebral angiography demonstrated right ICAO at the vessel origin, with 50% stenosis of the left internal carotid artery. Collateral circulation from the right external to internal carotid artery branches and through the anterior communicating artery was poorly observed on the angiograms. Right middle cerebral artery branches were well visualized on vertebral angiograms at the late phase through the posterior and anterior pericallosal arteries. Due to this collateral blood supply, the right middle cerebral artery territory formed the most distal part of the cerebral circulation and was vulnerable to a reduction of cerebral blood flow. We considered that systemic hemodynamic disturbances by identical mechanisms to those observed in cough syncope may have brought about transient ischemia in the right middle cerebral artery territory which was manifested in the patient's unusual clinical presentation of ICAO "cough hemiplegia".