Abstract

A 73-year-old woman with atherosclerosis and a 56-year-old woman with hypertension complained frontal headache. Chest X-ray showed the mediastinal widening and chest CT revealed aortic dissection in both patients. Headache is rare as an initial symptom of aortic dissection. The headache was assumed be due to either vessel distension or pericarotid plexus ischemia. In the patients who have the risk factors for atherosclerosis and the mediastinal widening in chest X-ray, aortic dissection should be considered as a cause of headache.