Cerebral venous thrombosis: report of 2 cases of hemorrhagic venous infarction.

Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), a rare but potentially severe cerebrovascular disease, is defined as the thrombosis of a cortical or deep cerebral vein, or a cerebral venous sinus. This article reports 2 cases of CVT. In the first case, the patient is a 40-year-old woman with a history of 2 miscarriages, using oral contraception and presenting intense headache, cervical irradiation, and drowsiness. The second case reports a 43-year-old woman with a history of Crohn disease and daily use of oral contraception, presenting headache, neck pain, and hypersensitivity to noise and light. Noncontrast CT, CT venography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and MR venography (MRV), first-line noninvasive diagnostic modalities in clinical practice, led us to the diagnosis of CVT: hypoplastic lateral sinus CVT in the first case and deep cerebral vein CVT complicated by hemorrhagic infarction in the second case. The early diagnosis of CVT is extremely important, but often a challenge due to highly variable clinical presentation and radiographic findings. MRI and the MRV play a crucial role in case of anatomical variant and in better assessing the extension of thrombus, as well as parenchyma involvement and complications.

Transcranial Doppler: an early predictor of ischemic stroke after cardiac arrest?

UNLABELLED: A 69-yr-old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit after cardiac surgery. Immediately after the discontinuation of cardiopulmonary bypass, she had a circulatory arrest. A 13-min open-chest cardiac massage was followed by 70 min of cardiopulmonary bypass. Right hemiplegia and right extensor plantar reflex were noted after the patient awakened. She had been included in a prospective study protocol measuring, before and after surgery, cerebral blood flow with transcranial Doppler (TCD). The data were retrospectively analyzed, and it was established that the TCD had recorded cerebral perfusion defects. This is the first case of acute ischemic stroke after cardiac arrest with retrospective documentation of asymmetrical cerebral blood flow by a systematic postoperative TCD recording. IMPLICATIONS: Clinical neurological examination is often of limited value in deeply sedated patients. This case report describes the early diagnosis of an ischemic stroke by using transcranial Doppler after cardiac surgery. Thus, transcranial Doppler could be used systematically for cerebral perfusion monitoring in patients who have undergone major hemodynamic instabilities.