J Korean Acad Rehabil Med.  2010 Feb;34(1):99-102.

Ipsilateral Posterior Spinal Artery Infarction on Lower Medulla and Upper Cervical Spinal Cord: A case report

• Kang IS
• Kwon JG
• Lee SU
• Park HW

Abstract

Spinal cord infarction is uncommon and accounts for only 1% of all strokes in comparison with cerebral infarction. Furthermore, posterior spinal cord infarction is particularly rare because of an anastomotic network of direct penetrating vessels and plexus of pial vessels fed by the paired posterior spinal arteries. We report a case of unilateral posterior spinal artery infarction on lower medulla and upper cervical spinal cord in a patient of 60-year-old woman. She complained of continuous headache for several weeks and suddenly presented right facial paresthesia, slow progression of motor weakness and proprioceptive sensory loss on right extremity, and voiding difficulty. Magnetic resonance and computed tomography imaging studies confirmed acute infarction at the right posterolateral aspect of the lower medulla and upper cervical cord (C1-2 level) with right vertebral artery hypoplasia. Transcranial doppler sonography also showed right vertebral artery hypoplasia rather than stenosis with atherosclerosis.

Keyword

Spinal cord infarction; Posterior spinal artery; Medulla

MeSH Terms

Arteries
Atherosclerosis
Cerebral Infarction
Constriction, Pathologic
Extremities
Female
Headache
Humans
Infarction
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Middle Aged
Paresthesia
Spinal Cord
Stroke
Ultrasonography, Doppler, Transcranial
Vertebral Artery