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undeterred

(34,658 posts) Thu Jul 3, 2014, 10:30 PM Jul 2014

Ecstasy Leads to Rare Aneurysm in College Student

By Cari Nierenberg, Contributing Writer | July 03, 2014 06:30pm ET

A college student who took Ecstasy was fortunate to survive a ruptured aneurysm in an artery near his spinal cord, but his case is a reminder of the dangers of using this street drug.

Florida neurologists diagnosed the young man with a posterior spinal arterial (PSA) aneurysm, which is a weakening of the blood vessel wall in a spinal cord artery. This case is the first time an aneurysm of any spinal vessel has been linked to recreational drug use, and it's only the 13th PSA aneurysm case reported in the medical literature, the doctors said.

In the case report, published today (July 3) in the Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery, doctors describe how the student woke up one morning with severe upper back and neck pain, after going to a party the night before where he took MDMA, or Ecstasy.

http://www.livescience.com/46669-ecstasy-aneurysm-teen.html?cmpid=514645

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Ecstasy Leads to Rare Aneurysm in College Student (Original Post) undeterred Jul 2014 OP

Of course headline is linkbait Egnever Jul 2014 #1

Egnever

(21,506 posts)

1. Of course headline is linkbait

Reply to undeterred (Original post)

Thu Jul 3, 2014, 10:39 PM

Jul 2014

The evidence suggests the drug may not have caused the aneurysm, but if there was a weakened area in the posterior spinal artery, it can expand and rupture," Yavagal said.

We think the teenager was predisposed to having a weaker area in the spinal artery, he said, but "taking Ecstasy took a predisposition, and turned it into a real problem."

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