You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Letter
Results of a UK questionnaire of diagnosis and treatment in cervical artery dissection
  1. R K Menon,
  2. H S Markus,
  3. J W Norris
  1. St George’s University of London, London, UK
  1. Dr R K Menon, Clinical Neurosciences, St George’s University of London, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK; rmenon{at}sgul.ac.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2007.127639

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Cervical artery dissection (CAD) accounts for 2% of all ischaemic strokes.1 With improved non-invasive neurovascular imaging methods it is now appreciated that carotid and vertebral dissections are much more prevalent than previously believed and account for 25–30% of all ischaemic strokes in young patients aged <50 years. Despite their importance, best therapeutic management remains unclear and is not evidence based.

    There are no randomised trials of any treatment regimen in cervical dissection. Following presentation with either local symptoms (pain, headache or Horner’s syndrome) or stroke/TIA there is a risk of stroke, particularly in the first month.2 3 As this is probably thromboembolic, anticoagulation for 3–6 months is often recommended. However, this is not evidence based and there are no data from randomised controlled trials.4 Previous surveys to determine choice of antithrombotic agent in secondary prevention of stroke have shown a bias …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.