G L Vignazia | PubMed Health

PubMed2004

Post gravidic superior sagittal sinus thrombosis with elevated levels of homocystinemia.

Cerebral ischemia in the young (less than 45 years) is an uncommon finding, its ethiology remaining undefined in up to half of cases even if all the common diagnostic paths have been followed. Pregnancy and puerperium are characterised by an increased risk of ischemic stroke and intracranial venous thrombosis. We present a case of a young woman with post gravidic thrombosis of the superior sagittal sinus, occurred 10 days after eutocic delivery. She presented elevated plasma levels of homocystinemia, a sulphur containing amino acid that induce complex changes within the blood vessel wall, acting with an oxidative stress and with a reduction of nitric oxide availability. This clinical case suggests that a complete screening for thrombophilic risk factors should be an integral part in the diagnostic path of central venous thrombosis in young patients also in the puerperium, because it allows to identify thrombophilic risk factors requiring specific treatment.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Stroke patients, what to do and what to avoid.

In Italy (130,000 new strokes in the general population per year) ischemic stroke is the third cause of death, after cardiovascular disease and neoplastic disease with a prevalence of 6.5%. Different physicians are involved in the emergent evaluation and treatment of the acute ischemic stroke. As other acute events, the initial evaluation must be addressed to assess the patient's airway and breath-ing and cardiocirculatory conditions. The neurological examination must not be exhaustive and it should be completed in 5-10 minutes and a particular attention should be given to clinical findings leading to the suspect of an intracranial hemorrhages. A plain CT scan of the brain is the most important initial diagnostic study. Emergency therapy must be mainly directed to the correction of hypovolemia, hypoxia and the treatment of severe hypertension, hypoglycemia, intracranial hypertension and seizures. The goal is to achieve and to maintain an adequate cerebral perfusion by lowering the intracranial pressure (treating the cerebral oedema) and by increasing the mean arterial pressure, with an appropriate volemic expansion and/or with inotropic or vasopressor drugs. The thrombolytic therapy with intravenous recombinant tessutal plasminogen activator (r-TPA) when not specifically contraindicated, is recommended within 3 hours of onset of ischemic stroke. The benefit of intravenous r-TPA for acute ischemic stroke beyond 3 hours from the onset has never been proved.

Critical Care↗