Dolichoectasic cerebral arteries and aneurysm of the abdominal aorta. Double vascular rupture, favourable course

The authors report a case of dolichoectasic intracranial arteries associated with an aneurysm of the abdominal aorta. The patient presented with a double hemorrhagic vascular rupture, the abdominal aortic aneurysm being operated on as an emergency, with a favorable outcome. The cerebral and aortic angiograms showed extension of the pathological process to the large caliber arteries. Microcirculatory investigations at the nail bed and conjunctiva also showed distal lesions. The vascular abnormality underlying these multiple ectasic lesions would seem to be different to that of classical arteriosclerosis. Anatomopathological studies reported in the literature describe fibrous degenerative lesions of the media differing from those observed in fibromuscular dysplasia.