Giant cell arteritis with spinal cord infarction and basilar artery thrombosis.

A patient with active giant cell arteritis developed paraparesis and dissociated sensory loss due to infarction in the anterior spinal artery territory at the level of T12. Three days later fatal basilar artery thrombosis occurred. No occlusive lesion was found to explain the anterior spinal artery syndrome but this was associated with active arteritis. Alternative possibilities are that thrombus was present in involved cervical feeding vessels, or that emboli arose from intimal involvement in larger vessels, or that the event was related to thrombocytosis.