Headaches and acute hemiplegia of nonvascular origin: two cases

Acute hemiplegia with headaches does not always have a vascular origin. We describe two cases with headaches that included motor weakness symptoms. One patient had sporadic hemiplegic migraines. The second met the diagnosis criteria for a transient syndrome with headache, neurological deficits and cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis. These two case reports demonstrate the diagnostic difficulty that can be associated with acute motor weakness. A nonvascular origin should always be considered to prevent treatment errors, especially in the differential diagnosis of stroke.