WEDNESDAY, Dec. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Methamphetamine use may induce strokes in young adults, according to two cases described in the Dec. 26 issue of Neurology.
Wengui Yu, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues from the University of California-Irvine, reviewed the cases of a 36-year-old woman and a 29-year-old woman who developed speech difficulty and weakness after recent methamphetamine use.
Magnetic resonance imaging showed that both women had a stroke from carotid artery dissection. The first patient was treated with tissue plasminogen activator and eventually recovered with mild expressive aphasia. The second patient was treated with a stent and eventually recovered with moderate expressive aphasia and mild right hand weakness.
"Methamphetamine use may be associated with increased risk of stroke in young adults," Yu and colleagues write. Noting that cocaine has also been implicated in carotid artery dissection, "it is likely that cervicocephalic dissections may be secondary to a drug class effect rather than a specific drug," the authors conclude.
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