Imagerie des dissections des artères cervico-encéphaliques

Cervical artery dissections are the cause of more than 20% of ischemic strokes in people younger than 45 years. It affects the extracranial cervical arteries ten times more often than the intracranial arteries and the internal carotid artery is involved about four times more often than the vertebral artery. Symptoms are polymorphic, but should not delay rapid imaging to study the four cervical axes and confirm the diagnosis of arterial dissection based on direct and indirect evidence. In this work, we present a retrospective study of 34 patients with cervical arterial dissection seen from January 1998 to December 2010 in whom the diagnosis was confirmed with various imaging techniques available at the Habib Bourguiba Hospital: Doppler ultrasound, computed tomography, angiography, magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance angiography. The direct and indirect radiological signs were studied and compared with those of the literature.