Internal Carotid Artery Dissection and Ischemic Cerebral Infarction in the Setting of Essential Thrombocythemia

Abstract

Cervical artery dissection (CAD) is an important etiology of stroke in young adults. Its etiology is incompletely understood. Here, we report a young woman who presented with acute ischemic stroke in the setting of internal carotid artery (ICA) dissection and essential thrombocythemia (ET). We present a review of previous cases with comorbidity of CAD and ET and discuss the pathophysiological implications of this co-occurrence. In particular, we speculate that ET may increase the susceptibility of cervical vessels to spontaneous dissection, for example, by disturbing the microcirculation within the vessel wall.