TY - JOUR
T1 - Cerebral venous thrombosis
T2 - A case series and a neuroimaging review of the literature
AU - Diacinti, Davide
AU - Cartocci, Gaia
AU - Colonnese, Claudio
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare condition, difficult to diagnose because of its non specific clinical symptoms. In some cases CVT can mimic other conditions as subarachnoid hemorrhage, ischemia or tumor and for these reasons diagnosis is delayed or missed. CT, DSA and MRI findings help to obtain an early diagnosis and to distinguish it from other diseases. Our cases involved four patients with no signs or symptoms suspected for CVT and without risk factors associated to this disease; furthermore some early imaging findings observed in these patients could mimic other diseases. The aim of presenting these cases is to underline the importance of some findings at imaging techniques in obtaining an early diagnosis of CVT; in particular we describe the usefulness of MRI with gradient echo sequences (GRE) in detecting the venous thrombus, suggesting that GRE sequences should be included in the MRI protocol when a CVT is suspected. We also underline the role of radiologists in helping neurologists to make an early diagnosis of CVT or when in doubt to encourage further investigations in order to begin the anticoagulation therapy as soon as possible avoiding the onset of complications as permanent parenchymal damage, cerebral hemorrhage and venous infarction.
AB - Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare condition, difficult to diagnose because of its non specific clinical symptoms. In some cases CVT can mimic other conditions as subarachnoid hemorrhage, ischemia or tumor and for these reasons diagnosis is delayed or missed. CT, DSA and MRI findings help to obtain an early diagnosis and to distinguish it from other diseases. Our cases involved four patients with no signs or symptoms suspected for CVT and without risk factors associated to this disease; furthermore some early imaging findings observed in these patients could mimic other diseases. The aim of presenting these cases is to underline the importance of some findings at imaging techniques in obtaining an early diagnosis of CVT; in particular we describe the usefulness of MRI with gradient echo sequences (GRE) in detecting the venous thrombus, suggesting that GRE sequences should be included in the MRI protocol when a CVT is suspected. We also underline the role of radiologists in helping neurologists to make an early diagnosis of CVT or when in doubt to encourage further investigations in order to begin the anticoagulation therapy as soon as possible avoiding the onset of complications as permanent parenchymal damage, cerebral hemorrhage and venous infarction.
KW - Cerebral venous thrombosis
KW - GRE sequences
KW - Hemorrhage
KW - MRI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85053712128&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85053712128&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jocn.2018.09.007
DO - 10.1016/j.jocn.2018.09.007
M3 - Review article
C2 - 30243596
AN - SCOPUS:85053712128
VL - 58
SP - 142
EP - 147
JO - Journal of Clinical Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Clinical Neuroscience
SN - 0967-5868
ER -