Neonatal infarction within basal cerebral vein territory

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.

Diagnosis of perinatal stroke I: definitions, differential diagnosis and registration

INTRODUCTION

Perinatal stroke can be divided into three subtypes: ischaemic stroke, either arterial or sinovenous and haemorrhagic stroke. For the sake of universal registration and to perform intervention studies, we propose a detailed diagnostic registration system for perinatal stroke taking 10 variables into account. These variables are discussed here and in the accompanying article.

MATERIAL AND RESULTS

Differentiation is needed from focal brain changes as a result of disorders other than stroke, whereby accurate timing is possible only when early neonatal imaging is available. Detailed templates are presented for arterial and venous vascular classification. AIS is further subdivided into single territory and complex infarction and some stratification is proposed in the complicated stroke group. This registration system has been applied to a retrospective cohort of 134 newborns with stroke (single-centre observation from 1999 to 2007) and the results are compared with published data. By applying this registration system, intervention studies for one homogeneous stroke type (e.g. complete middle cerebral artery stroke) may be facilitated.

CONCLUSION

Ten variables may be sufficient to register a perinatal stroke. These include gestational age, birthweight, gender, delivery mode, time of detection, presentation, type of stroke, vessel affected or type of cavity, imaging method at detection and clinical context.

Sonographic stroke templates

This chapter provides arterial and venous stroke templates, designed with neonatal brain ultrasound as the viewpoint and adult stroke templates as the basis. Images change with maturation of the stages of infarction: swelling, necrosis, organisation and tissue loss. Adult templates permit recognition of well-delineated stroke types observed in the newborn brain. All circle of Willis arteries can be involved, as can their perforator branches. Middle cerebral artery (MCA) truncal stroke (anterior or posterior) is an important entity, with different prognosis than complete MCA stroke. Knowledge of these templates also aids in the definition of combinations of infarction (e.g. internal carotid artery stroke or pial plus perforator stroke) and of interarterial watershed injury. Venous templates, even if still under development around the time of birth, permit us to understand brain injury associated with sinus or deep vein thrombosis, especially several types of intracranial haemorrhage. Hindbrain stroke templates are scarcely applied to perinatal lesions.