Introduction: Polyarteritis nodosa is a necrotizing vasculitis that mainly affects small and medium-sized arteries in skin and internal organs. Neurological involvement is reported in around 25% of cases: ischemic stroke is relatively common, but haemorrhagic lesions are extremely rare. Subarachnoid haemorrhage in polyarteritis nodosa is an uncommon expression of this disease, mostly associated with aneurism rupture. To the best of the authors' knowledge, there is just one published case in pediatric age with polyarteritis nodosa and subarachnoid haemorrhage with no underlying aneurismal disease.
Case report: A 7-year-old girl, who presented a non-aneurismal subarachnoid haemorrhage with intraparenchymal extension in the left basal ganglia. She was previously diagnosed with polyarteritis nodosa and prothrombotic condition, being under immunosuppressive and anti-platelet treatment at that moment.
Conclusions: The clinical features of polyarteritis nodosa together with continued anti-platelet therapy to prevent thromboembolic disease in this patient could have predisposed to the haemorrhagic event in the process of cerebral vasculitis. Standard subarachnoid haemorrhage management is initially required in such cases as cerebral aneurysms are the most common cause of haemorrhage in the context of polyarteritis nodosa disease.
Title: Hemorragia subaracnoidea no aneurismatica secundaria a panarteritis nodosa en edad pediatrica: caso clinico.
Introduccion. La panarteritis nodosa es una vasculitis necrotizante que afecta de manera predominante a arterias de pequeño y mediano calibre de la piel y los organos internos. La afectacion neurologica sucede en un 25% de casos: los ictus isquemicos son relativamente frecuentes, pero las lesiones hemorragicas resultan extremadamente raras. La hemorragia subaracnoidea es una expresion poco comun de la enfermedad, asociada la inmensa mayoria de las veces a patologia aneurismatica. En nuestro conocimiento, solo existe otro caso descrito de panarteritis nodosa con hemorragia subaracnoidea en la edad pediatrica sin patologia aneurismatica subyacente. Caso clinico. Niña de 7 años que presento una hemorragia subaracnoidea no aneurismatica con extension intraparenquimatosa a los ganglios basales izquierdos. Previamente se habia diagnosticado panarteritis nodosa y enfermedad protrombotica, en tratamiento con farmacos inmunodepresores y antiagregantes en ese momento. Conclusiones. Las caracteristicas clinicas de la panarteritis nodosa, junto con el tratamiento antiagregante para prevenir la enfermedad tromboembolica en nuestra paciente, podrian haber predispuesto al evento hemorragico en el proceso de la vasculitis cerebral. El manejo estandar de la hemorragia subaracnoidea es necesario en estos casos debido a que los aneurismas cerebrales son la causa mas comun de hemorragia subaracnoidea en un contexto de panarteritis nodosa.