Cavernous angioma: a clinical study of 35 cases with review of the literature.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Cavernous angioma is a vascular malformation which can be found in any region within the central nervous system. OBJECTIVES: There are few clinical and demographic cavernous angioma studies with large sample sizes. Therefore, the present study was designed to provide further information on the clinical and demographic characteristics of cavernous angioma using a relatively large sample of Persian patients. METHODS: Patients with cavernous angioma were recruited from the outpatient neurology clinics in Isfahan, Iran, from October 2003 to October 2006. RESULTS: In all cases, the diagnosis of cavernous angioma was based on brain magnetic resonance imaging. There were 35 patients (female/male 17 18) identified with cavernous angioma. The mean age at presentation was 28.8 years. Initial manifestations included seizures in 16, headache in 11 and intracranial hemorrhage in eight patients. During follow-up, all patients experienced seizures and 19 developed headaches. Depression, vertigo, nausea, vomiting, disequilibrium, loss of consciousness and sensorimotor symptoms were also observed. CONCLUSION: Some of the findings of the present study were in accordance with previous studies. However, more of our patients with positive family history had solitary rather than multiple lesions, and more of our patients had generalized tonic-clonic seizures rather than partial seizures. Moreover, our data demonstrated that if there is a history of cavernous angioma with intracranial hemorrhage in family members, the presenting cavernous angioma patient is more prone to intracranial hemorrhage.