Basilar artery thrombosis during sexual intercourse.

• A basilar artery thrombosis during sexual intercourse is very rare. • A right-to-left shunt was obtained by High-Intensity-Transient-Signals detection. • Sexual intercourse may be considered as a possible trigger of cerebral ischemia. An ischemic stroke during sexual intercourse is very rare. A basilar artery thrombosis during sexual intercourse has not been described previously. We report a young woman with a life-threatening basilar artery thrombosis during sexual intercourse, with a resulting locked-in syndrome. The positive high intensity transient signals (HITS) diagnosis showed a right-to-left shunt and is in line with paradoxic embolism. The molecular genetics revealed a homozygosity 4G/4G in the region PAI1, -675 (promoter polymorphism) as a risk factor for ischemic stroke. Sexual intercourse is a possible, albeit unusual stroke cause, especially in young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]