We describe a rare patient with a cavernous sinus dural arteriovenous fistula (CS DAVF) in whom diagnostic rotational angiography (RA) caused sinus arrest and bradycardia.Case Presentation: A 79-year-old woman with no previous history of cardiovascular diseases presented with left oculomotor nerve paresis. Conventional angiography confirmed a bilateral CS DAVF. During a three-dimensional RA (3DRA) examination of the left internal carotid artery, sinus arrest occurred. Subsequently, the use of 3DRA to image the left external carotid artery and the use of cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) to image the left internal and external carotid artery also caused transient sinus bradycardia. Two weeks later, we inserted a temporary transvenous pacemaker and completed the transvenous embolization of the left CS DAVF. The left oculomotor paresis improved without any perioperative complications.
Conclusion:RA is a standard radiological modality for the diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease. Although the physical force generated by the injection of the contrast medium at the carotid bifurcation can theoretically cause hemodynamic instability, no previous reports have described sinus arrest or bradycardia in association with diagnostic carotid angiography. The present case demonstrates that 3DRA and CBCT can provoke rare, but serious, incidences of cardiac arrhythmia.Keywords▶ carotid baroreceptor reflex, cone beam computed tomography, dural arteriovenous fistula, sinus arrhythmia, three-dimensional rotational angiography bifurcation. [1][2][3][4] A recent report showed that cardiac arrest can also be elicited during the deployment of a flow-diverter. 5) To the best of our knowledge, however, no previous reports have described severe hemodynamic instability related to diagnostic rotational angiography (RA).Here, we report a patient with a cavernous sinus dural arteriovenous fistula (CS DAVF) who experienced a sinus arrhythmia during three-dimensional RA (3DRA) and cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) for the visualization of the internal and external carotid arteries.
Case PresentationA 79-year-old woman had noted diplopia and left ocular pain for 2 months prior to visiting our institute. She had no past cardiac history. Her physical examination revealed ptosis, a mildly dilated pupil, an impaired downward gaze, and an impaired rightward gaze in the left eye, suggesting left oculomotor nerve paresis. Magnetic resonance imaging and This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives International License.