Early acute ischaemic stroke in two patients with acute type B aortic dissection: an unusual complication.

Aortic thoracic dissection (AD) is a serious cardiovascular disease. According to the Stanford classification; type A involves the ascending aorta and type B the descending distal to the left subclavian artery. Neurological complications secondary to AD are devastating. Ischaemic stroke and hypoxic encephalopathy are early-recognised complications of type A as the arch vessels can be involved AD. Although, late ischaemic stroke had been reported in 1.4-5% of patients with type B dissection, early stroke is very unusual as it cannot be simply explained by AD anatomical pathogenesis. We report two patients who presented with type B AD complicated by early ischaemic strokes. Work-up revealed significant cardiomyopathies in both patients but with left ventricle thrombus in one. In both patients the strokes were felt to be of cardioembolic origin.