Postpartum cerebral angiopathy: reversible vasoconstriction assessed by transcranial Doppler ultrasounds.
Postpartum cerebral angiopathy is a distinct reversible clinicoradiological syndrome which develops shortly after a normal pregnancy. It may belong to the poorly defined group of acute benign cerebral angiopathy, in which multisegmental narrowings of cerebral arteries are also reversible. In a 22-year-old woman with postpartum cerebral angiopathy, sequential transcranial Doppler ultrasounds showed that the flow disturbances began to improve 4 days after onset, and normalized 4 weeks later. A vasoconstriction response to acute severe hypertension is likely to explain this reversible angiopathy.
Bogousslavsky
J
J
Department of Neurology, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Despland
P A
PA
Regli
F
F
Dubuis
P Y
PY
D000328:Adult; D002536:Cerebral Arteries / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000098:blood supply*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D049590:Postpartum Period / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014661:Vasoconstriction