Spinal Cord Infarction and Patent Foramen Ovale: Is There a Link

Spinal Cord Infarction and Patent Foramen Ovale: Is There a Link

Blog Article

Spinal cord infarction (SCI) is an uncommon but important cause of acute myelopathy.Nevertheless, contrary to cerebral stroke, the discussion about paradoxical embolism as a cause of cryptogenic SCI remains dubious.We describe the case of a 24-year-old woman who developed sudden-onset back pain followed by upper limb paralysis.T2-weighted MRI demonstrated hyperintense signal, extending from C5 to Accessories D1 with corresponding restricted diffusion on diffusion-weighted MRI and reduction of the apparent diffusion coefficient.Diagnostic workup, including lumbar puncture, showed no changes.

Transcranial Doppler showed a right-to-left shunt with an uncountable number of microembolic signals after Valsalva maneuvers, and a patent foramen ovale (PFO) with an atrial septum aneurysm was identified.We discuss the paucity of evidence of right-to-left Recliners shunting in spinal diseases compared to cerebral events and the potential role of paradoxical embolism through PFO as a possible mechanism of SCI.