You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
How to do it
Uncommon causes of ischaemic stroke: how to approach the diagnosis
  1. Robert Hurford1,
  2. Rekha Siripurapu2,
  3. Hedley C A Emsley3,
  4. Joanna Lovett4,
  5. David Werring5,
  6. Martin Nicholas Michael Punter6,7
  1. 1 Neurology Department, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2 Department of Neuroradiology, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK
  3. 3 Lancaster Medical School, Lancaster University Faculty of Health and Medicine, Lancaster, UK
  4. 4 Neurology Department, Wessex Neurological Centre, Southampton, UK
  5. 5 Stroke Research Group, UCL institute of neurology, London, UK
  6. 6 Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
  7. 7 Department of Neurology, Wellington Regional Hospital, Newtown, New Zealand
  1. Correspondence to Dr Martin Nicholas Michael Punter, Department of Neurology, Wellington Regional Hospital, Wellington 6021, New Zealand; martin.punter{at}ccdhb.org.nz

Abstract

Stroke is a common neurological emergency and although most cases are associated with traditional vascular risk factors leading to cerebral ischaemia by well-recognised pathophysiological mechanisms, around 4% of ischaemic strokes are due to rare conditions. These are important to recognise due to their different management, which is often specific and effective, and due to their different prognosis from otherwise cryptogenic ischaemic strokes. We outline a practical approach to identifying uncommon causes of ischaemic stroke by highlighting diagnostic ‘red flags’ and propose a structured approach to investigating them.

  • VASCULITIS
  • STROKE
  • CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASE
  • CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Data availability statement

No data are available.

https://doi.org/10.1136/pn-2022-003449

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.

    Data availability statement

    No data are available.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Twitter @martin_punter

    • Correction notice This article has been corrected since it was published Online First. An author middle name was amended.

    • Contributors RH, DW and MMNP conceived the concept. RH wrote the first draft. RS provided expert neuroradiology input. Other authors reviewed and critically appraised the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed by Tom Hughes, Cardiff, UK.

    Other content recommended for you