CASE REPORT   Open access

Italian Journal of Emergency Medicine 2022 April;11(1):41-4

DOI: 10.23736/S2532-1285.22.00106-9

Copyright © 2022 THE AUTHORS

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language: English

Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome with concomitant COVID-19 infection

Rosalba IMBRICI ✉, Luisa VITIELLO, Carla VALLONE, Michele SCHIANO DI COLA, Antonio PETROCELLI

Department of Emergency, AOU San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d’Aragona, Salerno, Italy

A 49-year-old woman presented to the Emergency Room complaining an unusual and severe thunderclap headache. Nasopharyngeal swab was positive for SARS-CoV-2 in RT-PCR-assay. A contrast brain CT showed convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage (cSAH) with no signs of vessels aneurism rupture. Due to recurrence of symptoms cerebral angiography was performed showing areas of multifocal cerebral arterial vasoconstriction. Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) was suspected, and an appropriate therapy was started with clinical improvement. Herein we describe a rare case of RCVS with concomitant SARS-CoV-2 infection.

KEY WORDS: SARS-CoV-2; Subarachnoid hemorrhage; Vasoconstriction