The stroke syndrome of long intraluminal clot with incomplete vessel obstruction.

A stroke syndrome is described in 3 patients where long intraluminal clot formation with incomplete vessel obstruction was seen angiographically. The vessel involved in 2 cases were carotid arteries and in the third a vertebral artery. The intervening phase of long clot formation may be a feature of many cases of complete vessel occlusion. The common features of the syndrome were vessel tenderness (carotidynia in 2 cases, and vertebral artery tenderness in the third), vascular headache, the presence of subintimal haemorrhage as an anchor point for the clot, and the recurrence of clinical events. Surgical removal of these clots were successfully undertaken in each case at the acute stage.