Multiple Spinal Cord Infarction due to Primary Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Abstract

Spinal cord infarction (SCI) is considered rare in comparison with cerebral infarction but its consequences can lead to greater disability. Reliable incidence rates do not exist due to publication of case reports or cases series [1,2]. A retrospective one-center study finds spinal cord infarction accountable for 1.2% of the total admissions [3]. Etiologies of spinal infarcts include atheromas involving the aorta as the most common cause, usually after a thoraces abdominal aneurysm repair. Other causes of SCI include spinal arteriovenous malformation repair, dissecting aortic aneurysm, cardiac arrest, embolic infarction, syphilitic angiitis, and less common etiologies include collagen disease as systemic lupus or polyarteritis nodosa, pregnancy, sickle cell disease and neurotoxic effects of iodinated contrast material [4]. Syphilitic arteritis was the most frequent cause of SCI until the introduction of penicillin [5]. Neurovascular syndromes of SCI have different symptomatology depending on the level of the infarction and arteries involved, but they usually present with weakness, radicular back pain, are flexia, spin thalamic sensory loss, and autonomic dysfunction.