Posterior cerebral artery dissection after excessive caffeine consumption in a teenager.

Arterial ischemic stroke is a rare but significant cause of neurological deficits in childhood. Even though there is a variety of risk factors, identifying the etiology can sometimes be a hard diagnostic challenge. Arteriopathies in general, and more specifically, arterial dissection is one of the uncommon pathologies that can cause incidents of pediatric stroke. We report a rare case of a young adolescent with posterior cerebral artery dissection after excessive consumption of caffeine, contained in energy drinks, only hours before the onset of neurological symptoms. A complete neuroimaging evaluation (MRI, intracranial US and digital subtraction angiography) at the admission and during the follow-ups supported the diagnosis of arterial dissection possibly caused by caffeine overconsumption.

B-mode and color Doppler imaging of carotid paragangliomas in different neck regions.

Glomus tumors or paragangliomas are rare benign neoplasms which are very uncommon in the head and neck region. They grow slowly from paraganglion cells, which serve various regulatory tasks in the body and form the basis of the extra-adrenal neuroendocrine system. They have benign properties, but tend to cause local invasion and expansion to adjacent anatomic structures. The majority of glomus tumor cases are incidental findings, since the clinical symptoms are mostly absent. The purpose of this paper is to distinguish the ultrasonographic features of different glomus tumors located within the neck region, based on their varying anatomical location and space occupying behavior.