[Ischemic stroke in a young patient with methylephedrine addiction: a case report].

We report a case of a young patient who had an ischemic stroke due to methylephedrine addiction. A 39-year-old man was admitted to our hospital because of right hemiplegia and persistent numbness. Brain diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance images demonstrated multiple hyperintensity spots in the deep and superficial borderzone area of the left hemisphere. The patient had no obvious diseases that might have caused ischemic stroke, including potential cardiac sources of embolism, vasculopathy of the cerebral artery, or abnormalities of blood coagulation. However, we found that the patient had started to abuse methylephedrine at the age of 20 years old, and we suspected that drug abuse might have caused his ischemic stroke. Although previous reports have associated ischemic stroke with ephedrine, no reports have related this condition to methylephedrine. However, our case suggests that methylephedrine abuse may cause ischemic stroke.