Carotid Arterial Elastic Hyperplasia in a Newborn

Cerebrovascular insufficiency in infancy and childhood is well documented and has a diverse and often unknown etiology. Reported here is a polycythemic, microciphalic infant girl of 43 week's gestation with bilateral cerebral infarction occurring in the perinatal period. Infarction was the result of bilateral carotid artery stenosis produced by massive reduplication of the internal elastic lamina. Review of the literature failed to reveal any reports of similar arterial lesions. The angiographical picture was also unique. The etiology of this unusual defect is not known, but we believe the problem was congenital perhaps due to an intrauterine infectious process.