Reversible Cerebral Vasoconstriction Disorder in a Patient with a Chief Complaint of Headache

As emergency medicine physicians, we have formulated an approach to managing patients with a chief complaint of headache that starts with considering the story the patient relays in the context of a wide differential. Here we will describe a case that presented to our emergency department in hopes to broaden your differential. Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS), well described in the neurology literature, is characterized by severe headaches that may or may not be accompanied by neurological symptoms and is definitively diagnosed by diffuse constriction of cerebral arteries on cerebral angiogram. Here we present a case of a patient who presented to the emergency department with intermittent severe persistant headaches and was diagnosed with reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome.