Cerebral venous congestion correlates to acute aneurysm rupture: An illustrative case with Doppler ultrasonography study.

BACKGROUND: The objective of our description is to shed light on some new hemodynamic and clinical characteristics in the unstable cerebral aneurysm Case: We describe a 54 year old woman who presented a tension headache, that increasing for several days. A CT scan performed in ER suggests a possible arterial ectasia at the level of the circle of Willis. The patient is hospitalized. An angio CT shows an aneurysm of the anterior communicating artery, without signs of fixation and/or other instability. A subsequent TCCD examination with venous study shows clear congestion at the level of the spheno-parietal sinus. The Valsalva maneuver determines an increase in local congestion. In the light of the ultrasound picture, the patient was quickly received in Neurosurgery with success. CONCLUSION: we describe a clinical case where the worsening tension headache was not secondary to the increase of volume of the aneurysm but was an epiphenomenon of venous congestion, explored with TCCD. The mass effect of the aneurysm determined venous sinus compression and changed the hemodynamic of the cerebral venous flow. We believe that venous outflow obstruction and a high intracranial venous pressure gradient may be a cerebral aneurysm rupture factor.

[Migraine in SLE: role of antiphospholipid antibodies and Raynaud's phenomenon]. / Emicrania nel LES: ruolo del fenomeno di Raynaud e degli anticorpi antifospolipidi.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the role of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) and of Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) in the development of migraine in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). METHODS: 50 unselected SLE patients and 20 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) controls underwent an interview to define the presence of migraine according to the guidelines of the International Headache Society (1988). Serological tests for aPL were performed in all patients. SLE patients were divided according to positivity for RP and/or aPL into 4 subsets: R-/aPL-, R-/aPL+, R+/aPL- and R+/aPL+. Data were analysed using Fisher's exact test, Chi-square test and U Mann-Whitney test. RESULTS: SLE and RA patients were similar for demographic and clinical features; aPL positivity was found in a greater proportion of SLE patients versus RA controls (68% vs 25%, p=0.0036). 31 of the 50 lupic patients (62%) and 7 of the 20 RA controls (35%) suffered from migraine (OR=3, CI:1-8.9). Among SLE and RA patients, migraine was associated with aPL positivity (p=0.027 and p=0.019). Analysing the combined effect of aPL and RP on migraine, in R+/aPL+ patients we detected an higher frequency of migraine (85.7%) with respect to the patients negative for these two features (27%, p=0.0051, OR=16, CI:2.2-118) and to the patients positive only for aPL (65%, p=0.0031, OR=6.2, CI:1.2-32). CONCLUSIONS: Migraine in SLE and RA associates with aPL positivity. The simultaneous presence of RP increases by 2,5 times the probability of having migraine, suggesting that cerebral vasospasm might be more common in patients with peripheral vasospasm, given the presence of aPL.

Mycophenolate mofetil and intravenous dexamethasone in the treatment of persistent lupus myelitis.

Methylprednisolone and cyclophosphamide pulse therapies are the most commonly used for transverse myelopathy in neuropsychiatric lupus. Little is known about the efficacy of other immunosuppressors. We describe the case of a 33-year-old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus, who developed a tranverse myelopathy, beginning with a hiccup due to involvement of the medulla oblongata; despite pulses of methylprednisolone plus azathioprine and cyclosporine therapy, she developed paraparesis with involvement of the cervical spine cord. After oral cyclophosphamide, the lesion remained active. Subsequent therapy with mycophenolate mofetil and continuous intravenous infusions of dexamethasone resulted in reduction of the lesion's size, disappearance of magnetic resonance imaging enhancement, and a complete recovery.