Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) complicating tubercular meningitis.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM), complicated with cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), has been sparsely reported and needs to be investigated further. METHODS: Among those with tuberculous meningitis in Haihe Hospital, Tianjin University, 3 patients with venous sinus thrombosis were identified retrospectively. "Tuberculous meningitis" and "cerebral venous thrombosis" were used as keywords, and the retrieved literature was summarized and analyzed. Our data were combined with previously reported case data to describe this new condition. RESULTS: Among 28 patients with a median onset age of 31 years for TBM, 17 were females. The manifestations were fever, headache, and seizure. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) venography showed that the most common site of venous sinus thrombosis involved superior sagittal sinus, left transverse sinus, left sigmoid sinus, cavernous sinus, and straight sinus. The abnormalities found on MRI include hydrocephalus, exudates, hemorrhage, meningeal enhancement, infarction, and tuberculoma. In the acute phase, all patients received standard anti-TB treatment, and 14/28 patients received anticoagulant treatment. The mortality rate of these patients was 17.9%, and 21/28 (75%) became functionally independent. CONCLUSIONS: CVT is one of the rare complications of TMB and must be considered a differential diagnosis in patients with TBM who show poor clinical features and/or develop new neurological signs.

Asian Study of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: Most of the studies and registries related to cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) are reported from European countries and the United States. The objective of the present study is to identify risk factors, presentation, and outcome of CVT in Asian patients. METHODS: Asian CVT registry is a prospective multinational observational study that included patients (aged > 16 years) with symptomatic CVT. RESULTS: Eight hundred and twelve patients (59% women) from 20 centers in 9 Asian countries were included. Mean age of the patients was 31 years. Motor weakness in limbs was present in 325 (40%) patients. One hundred and eighty (22.1%) patients had a normal Glasgow coma scale (GCS) at presentation, and another 529 patients (65%) had GCS between 11 and 14. The rest (103; 13%) had a GCS of less than 10 at presentation. Permanent risk factors were present in 264 (33%) patients, transient in 342 (42%) patients, both in 43 (5%) patients and no risk factors were found in 163 (20%) patients. Anemia was present in 51%, use of oral contraceptive pills (OCP) was present in 12% women and a hypercoaguable state was present in more than 40% of those tested. One hundred and forty-three cases (18%) were in women who were either pregnant (18; 2%) or in the puerperium (up to 6 weeks postpartum; N = 125; 15%). A total of 86 (10.5%) patients were diagnosed with infection in any part of the body. The most common MRI finding was local brain edema or ischemia (53.3%) followed by hemorrhage (26.7%). Twenty-seven patients (3.3%) died during hospital stay. The mRS score at discharge was available for 661 (81%) patients. Of these, 577 (87.3%) had good functional outcome at discharge. Motor weakness at presentation, GCS of 9 or less and mental status disorder were the strongest independent predictors of mortality at last follow-up among patients with CVT. CONCLUSIONS: Important differences were identified as compared to western data including younger age, high frequency of anemia, low use of OCP, and high frequency of hypercoaguable states. Functional outcome at discharge was good.

Cerebral venous thrombosis: state of the art diagnosis and management.

PURPOSE: This review article aims to discuss the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, and neuroimaging of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Different approaches for diagnosis of CVT, including CT/CTV, MRI/MRV, and US will be discussed and the reader will become acquainted with imaging findings as well as limitations of each modality. Lastly, this exhibit will review the standard of care for CVT treatment and emerging endovascular options. METHODS: A literature search using PubMed and the MEDLINE subengine was completed using the terms "cerebral venous thrombosis," "stroke," and "imaging." Studies reporting on the workup, imaging characteristics, clinical history, and management of patients with CVT were included. RESULTS: The presentation of CVT is often non-specific and requires a high index of clinical suspicion. Signs of CVT on NECT can be divided into indirect signs (edema, parenchymal hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and rarely subdural hematomas) and less commonly direct signs (visualization of dense thrombus within a vein or within the cerebral venous sinuses). Confirmation is performed with CTV, directly demonstrating the thrombus as a filling defect, or MRI/MRV, which also provides superior characterization of parenchymal abnormalities. General pitfalls and anatomic variants will also be discussed. Lastly, endovascular management options including thrombolysis and mechanical thrombectomy are discussed. CONCLUSIONS: CVT is a relatively uncommon phenomenon and frequently overlooked at initial presentation. Familiarity with imaging features and diagnostic work-up of CVT will help in providing timely diagnosis and therapy which can significantly improve outcome and diminish the risk of acute and long-term complications, optimizing patient care.

Preliminary data on utility of subcutaneous unfractionated heparin in patients with deep cerebral venous thrombosis.

Subcutaneous unfractionated heparin (SCUFH) has been proved effective in puerperal cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT), but its efficacy in the more serious form of the disease such as deep CVT patients (DCVT) unreported. We describe the outcomes of 37 (isolated:combined: 11:26) patients of DCVT diagnosed by MRI, treated with SCUFH in a tertiary care stroke unit. It was a prospective observational cohort study using 5000 U of SCUFH every 6 hourly for 10 days with oral Acenocoumarol started on day 7, with monitoring. The outcome was assessed by modified Rankin scale (mRS), National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Barthel's activities of daily life (BADL) at 3 months. The mean age of the cohort was 27.9 ± 9.7 years, females (n = 24) outnumbering the males (n = 13). Mean duration of symptoms being 10.2 ± 15.9 days. MRI showed vein of Galen and straight sinus involvement in 36 (97.3%) patients, with sparing of the basal vein of Rosenthal in 28 (75%). Thalamus 27 (73%) basal ganglia 21 (56.7%) were commonly involved areas with hemorrhagic lesions in 18 (48.6%) patients. The median NIHSS score at presentation was 11 (1-21). Mean duration of SCUFH treatment was 9.3 ± 1.3 days and the mean aPTT on day 7 was 49.3 ± 9.8 s (control 32-39 s), mean PT INR on day 13 was 1.5 ± 0.45. All the patients improved with no mortality in the study group. At 3 months, good functional outcome (mRS: 0-2) was observed in 94.6% (n = 35) of patients. Two patients had mRS-3. The median mRS (3{1-5} to 0{0-3}) and BADL (8{0-20} to 20{8-20}) improved at 3 months. Complications seen were thrombocytopenia-1, infection-6 and deep vein thrombosis of leg-4. Our preliminary data suggests that SCUFH is safe, effective treatment option in patients with DCVT in a stroke unit with minimal monitoring.

Visual and somatosensory phenomena following cerebral venous infarction.

BACKGROUND: The most frequent clinical presentation of occipital or visual tract lesion is hemianopsia or quadrantanopsia. However, damage to the primary or secondary visual cortex can also manifest as visual hallucinations (photopsiae or complex phenomena). We report visual and somatosensory phenomena following cerebral venous infarction based on a study of a patient with a history of recent head injury. CASE PRESENTATION: We report a 61-year-old man with a history of recent head injury presented with a headache of two weeks duration. He was complaining of transient visual abnormalities, which he described as impaired ability to recognize faces, dark spots moving in the visual field and distorted contours of an objects. Clinical examination showed a balance disorder with no evidence of visual deficit. During further observation the patient started to experience more complex visual and sensory phenomena of: waving of the ceiling, clouds that he could form and feel, he had an impression of incorrect sizes of given objects, he could see a nonexistent pack of cigarettes and the character from the arcade game Pac-Man "eating" an existing drip stand. CONCLUSIONS: The patient mentioned above possessing simple and complex visual and somatosensory hallucinations and illusions in the course of venous stroke. A possible mechanism involves irritation of cortical centers responsible for visual processing.

Mechanical Thrombectomy for Aseptic, Atraumatic, Medically Refractory Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis: a Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) follows a severe clinical course in 13.5% of cases. Practice guidelines recommend endovascular therapy (EVT); no randomised control trials (RCTs) exist comparing EVTs. PURPOSE: To determine whether specific EVTs are superior to alternatives. DATA SOURCES: CENTRAL, Medline, Embase, five other databases and four clinical trials registers. Grey literature searches, reference checking, citation searching, and author contact. STUDY SELECTION: All CVST cases treated with mechanical thrombectomy (MT) were includible. Paediatric, and trauma-related or infection-related thromboses were excluded. DATA ANALYSIS: Standard Cochrane review procedures. Primary outcome measures; clinical efficacy (modified Rankin Score, mRS), technical efficacy (recanalisation), and clinical safety (procedure-related complications and death). Subgroup analyses were performed, comparing outcome measures between demographic groups, clinico-radiological severity, interventional strategies, and degrees of recanalisation. DATA SYNTHESIS: In this study 124 papers were included (n = 486). All patients underwent MT, with 69.5% of patients receiving concomitant chemolysis. New/expanding intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) occurred in 5.1%; non-haemorrhagic complications in 1.4%; 10.7% died. Predictors of poor efficacy included age ≥ 55 years, altered mental status (AMS), Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) < 8. Predictive of poor safety outcomes included pre-existing ICH, deep system thrombosis, and AMS. Complete recanalisation was associated with improved clinical efficacy and safety outcomes. LIMITATIONS: The review is based on case reports/series, increasing bias-risk. Myriad of potentially includible studies were necessarily excluded due to lack of requisite details. CONCLUSION: Predictors of poor outcomes with medical therapy predict poor outcomes with MT; these measures should not dictate candidacy. Complete recanalisation predicts favorable clinical and safety outcomes. Local chemolysis is safe, improves recanalisation, and should be recommended, provided there is no contraindication. Clot maceration strategies and stent-retriever thrombectomy are associated with superior clinical efficacy and safety endpoints, as compared with balloon angioplasty and rheolysis.

Acute cerebrovascular incident in a young woman: Venous or arterial stroke? - Comparative analysis based on two case reports.

BACKGROUND: Cerebrovascular diseases are the most common neurological disorders. Most of them are arterial strokes, mainly ischemic, less often of hemorrhagic origin. Changes in the course of cerebral venous thrombosis are less common causes of acute cerebrovascular events. Clinical and radiological presentation of arterial and venous strokes (especially in emergency head CT) may pose a diagnostic problem because of great resemblance. However, the distinction between arterial and venous stroke is important from a clinical point of view, as it carries implications for the treatment and determinates patient's prognosis. CASE REPORT: In this article, we present cases of two young women (one with an acute venous infarction, the second with an arterial stroke) who presented with similar both clinical and radiological signs of acute vascular incident in the cerebral cortex. We present main similarities and differences between arterial and venous strokes regarding the etiology, clinical symptoms and radiological appearance in various imaging techniques. CONCLUSIONS: We emphasize that thorough analysis of CT (including cerebral vessels), knowledge of symptoms and additional clinical information (e.g. risk factors) may facilitate correct diagnosis and allow planning further diagnostic imaging studies. We also emphasize the importance of MRI, especially among young people, in the differential diagnosis of venous and arterial infarcts.

Profile and Outcome of Prospective Non-Septic Lateral Sinus Thrombosis Patients from a Stroke Unit of a Developing Country.

Background: Due to effective treatment of middle ear infections there is a change in etiologies causing lateral sinus thrombosis (LST) and outcome. There is a paucity of literature describing homogenous group of patients with nonseptic LST (NS-LST). Objective: To describe the clinical profile, risk factors, outcome of patients of NS-LST seen at a single center from South India. Methods and Materials: Prospective, observational study of 100 patients of NS-LST patients, diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) seen at the stroke unit. Results: During 2 years, 100 patients of NS-LST (isolated: combined: 27:73) (male: female: 44:56), mean age: 31.45 ± 11.13 years, were seen. Subacute presentation (74%) with headache, seizures, focal deficits, and features of raised intracranial pressure were presenting features. Hyperhomocysteinemia (61%), anemia (57%), postpartum state (41%), OCP use (37%), and low VitB12 (32%) were commonly seen risk factors. Imaging with MRI compared withcomputerized tomography (CT) had better diagnostic sensitivity (100% vs. 67%), detection of parenchymal (81% vs. 67%)/hemorrhagic (79% vs. 74%) lesions, and cortical vein thrombosis (31% vs. 15.46%). Treatment with anticoagulation and supportive therapy resulted in good outcome (mRS (0-2)) at 3 months in 81%.There were four deaths, all during admission (one - isolated, three - combined) and 11 patients underwent decompressive surgery. Patients with low GCS level of sensoriumat admission, hemiparesis, combined LST, cerebellar involvement, and decompressive craniectomy had a poor outcome. Conclusion: This single-center large cohort study of NS-LST patients brings out the clinical features, risk factors (peculiar to developing countries), and the superiority of MRI in the diagnosis. Majority of patients have good outcome, with low mortality with 10% requiring decompressive surgery.

Cerebral venous thrombosis in patients with autoimmune disease, hematonosis or coronavirus disease 2019: Many familiar faces and some strangers.

BACKGROUND: Cerebral venous thrombosis, a rare stroke, is characterized by neurological dysfunction caused by bleeding and/or infarction resulting from venous sinus thrombosis, the so-called venous stroke. Current guidelines recommend anticoagulants as first-line therapy in the treatment of venous stroke. With complicated causes of cerebral venous thrombosis, treatment is difficult, especially when combined with autoimmune diseases, blood diseases, and even COVID-19. AIMS: This review summarizes the pathophysiological mechanisms, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and clinical prognosis of cerebral venous thrombosis combined with autoimmune diseases, blood diseases, or infectious diseases such as COVID-19. CONCLUSION: A systematic understanding of particular risk factors that should not be neglected when unconventional cerebral venous thrombosis occurs and for a scientific understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms, clinical diagnosis, and treatment, thus contributing to knowledge on special types of venous stroke.

Imaging Approach to Venous Sinus Thrombosis.

Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare cerebrovascular disease caused by an occlusion of the cerebral venous sinuses or cortical veins. It has a favorable prognosis if diagnosed and treated early. CVT can be difficult to diagnose on clinical grounds, and imaging plays a key role. We discuss clinical features and provide an overview of current neuroimaging methods and findings in CTV.

Venous stroke-a stroke subtype that should not be ignored.

Based on the etiology, stroke can be classified into ischemic or hemorrhagic subtypes, which ranks second among the leading causes of death. Stroke is caused not only by arterial thrombosis but also by cerebral venous thrombosis. Arterial stroke is currently the main subtype of stroke, and research on this type has gradually improved. Venous thrombosis, the particular type, accounts for 0.5-1% of all strokes. Due to the lack of a full understanding of venous thrombosis, as well as its diverse clinical manifestations and neuroimaging features, there are often delays in admission for it, and it is easy to misdiagnose. The purpose of this study was to review the pathophysiology mechanisms and clinical features of arterial and venous thrombosis and to provide guidance for further research on the pathophysiological mechanism, clinical diagnosis, and treatment of venous thrombosis. This review summarizes the pathophysiological mechanisms, etiology, epidemiology, symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment heterogeneity of venous thrombosis and compares it with arterial stroke. The aim is to provide a reference for a comprehensive understanding of venous thrombosis and a scientific understanding of various pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical features related to venous thrombosis, which will contribute to understanding the pathogenesis of intravenous stroke and provide insight into diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.

Safety and efficacy of endovascular thrombolysis in patients with acute cerebral venous sinus thrombosis: A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an uncommon but fatal cause of stroke worldwide. Endovascular treatments could be life-saving in patients who don't treat with anticoagulants as a mainstay of treatment. Currently, there is no consensus considering the safety, efficacy, and also selected approaches of endovascular intervention for these patients. This systematic review evaluates the literature on endovascular thrombolysis (EVT) in CVST patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive search was conducted through PubMed and Scopus databases between 2010 and 2021, with additional sources identified through cross-referencing. The primary outcomes were the safety and efficacy of EVT in CVST, including catheter-related and non-catheter-related complications, clinical outcomes, and radiological outcomes. RESULTS: A total of 10 studies comprising 339 patients were included. Most of the patients presented with headaches (86.72%) and/or focal neurologic deficits (45.43%) (modified Rankin Scale of 5 in 55.88%). Acquired coagulopathy and/or consuming estrogen/progesterone medication were the most frequent predisposing factors (45.59%). At presentation, 68.84% had multi-sinus involvement, and 28.90% had venous infarcts and/or intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). The overall complication rate was 10.3%, with a 2.94%, 1.47%, and 1.17% rate of ICH, herniation, and intracranial edema, respectively. The complete and partial postoperative radiographic resolution was reported in 89.97% of patients, increasing to 95.21% during the follow-up. Additionally, 72.22% of patients had no or mild neurologic deficit at discharge, rising to 91.18% at the last follow-up. The overall mortality rate was 7.07%. CONCLUSIONS: EVT can be an effective and safe treatment option for patients with refractory CVST or contraindications to systemic anticoagulation.

Imaging of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis.

Cerebral venous thrombosis is a rare cause of stroke. Imaging is essential for diagnosis. Although digital subtraction angiography is still considered by many to be the gold standard, it no longer plays a significant role in the diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis. MRI, which allows for imaging the parenchyma, vessels and clots, and CT are the reference techniques. CT is useful in case of contraindication to MRI. After presenting the radio-anatomy for MRI, we present the different MRI and CT acquisitions, their pitfalls and their limitations in the diagnosis of cerebral venous thrombosis.

Neonatal cerebral sinovenous thrombosis.

Cerebral sinovenous thrombosis (CSVT) is a focal or diffuse disruption of cerebral blood flow secondary to occlusion of cerebral veins and/or sinuses. The challenge of CSVT during the neonatal age has led to a great interest in this condition among neonatologists, child neurologists, and pediatric neuroradiologists. The highly variable clinical spectra, etiologies, and prognosis require fine medical skills and a high level of suspicion. Nevertheless, the diagnosis is often delayed or missed altogether. Differences in brain vulnerability at different stages of maturation may explain the spectrum of associated brain lesions, which varies with gestational age. Treatment is controversial and reported clinical outcomes vary widely. The controversial treatment of CSVT with anticoagulant therapy is based only on case series and expert consensus, there is lack of safety data.

Management of Venous Sinus Thrombosis.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is a rare subtype of cerebrovascular disease representing 0.5% of strokes. The signs and symptoms of CVST are often nonspecific, and variable in duration, with the common results being delayed diagnosis and treatment. Increased awareness in the medical community and advancements in imaging modalities have produced faster diagnosis with improved patient outcomes. The preferred initial treatment is with a low molecular weight heparin. After the acute stage of CVST, treatment with a vitamin K antagonist (oral anticoagulant therapy) is recommended. Current evidence suggests that in the future, factor Xa inhibitor drugs may be used for long-term therapy.