title: Cerebral sinus venous thrombosis in inflammatory bowel diseases.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It has been estimated that 1.3-6.4% of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are complicated by cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) at some point of time during the course of their disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively reviewed and subsequently analyzed data from 65 case reports of IBD patients with CVT. Our sources included MEDLINE and EMBASE, and the references of retrieved articles were also screened.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with CVT and IBD were significantly younger than CVT patients without IBD. Female patients were complicated more frequently but at an older age when compared with males. The incidence of ulcerative colitis was almost double compared with Crohn's disease. Active disease was detected in 78.4% of the cases and the proportions of patients with active ulcerative colitis or active Crohn's disease were almost equal. The predominant neurological symptom in these patients was persistent headache (80%) and the most common site of CVT was the superior sagittal sinus (50.7%). Severe iron deficiency anemia was highlighted as a significant risk factor for thrombosis in nearly half of the patients. Transient coagulation abnormalities and hereditary thrombogenic mutations were identified in 23 and 20% of the case reports, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The overall outcome was very good, especially in those patients who were treated acutely with heparin or low molecular weight heparin, suggesting that heparin administration is related with improved neurological outcome and decreased mortality rates even in IBD patients complicated with CVT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, University Campus, 45110 Ioannina, Greece.
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Katsanos
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Katsanos
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kosmidou
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Giannopoulos
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Kyritsis
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Tsianos
mesh_terms: D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D012851:Sinus Thrombosis, Intracranial / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants