The epidemiology of cervical artery dissection (CAD), which is often not thought to be the cause of ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA), is discussed. The pathomorphology and pathogenesis of CAD, the key feature of which is the development of intramural hematoma, as well as predisposing conditions, triggers and associated conditions, in particular migraine, are reviewed. The clinical picture of diseases — local symptoms (headache and/ or neck pain, Horner’s syndrome, caudal cranial nerve involvement, cervical radicular syndrome, pulsatile tinnitus) and ischemic events (ischemic stroke or TIA) is presented. Modern approaches to urgent neuro- and angioimaging in CAD are reflected, including the possibilities of CT angiography (direct and indirect signs) and fat sat MRI (crescent symptom). Issues of reperfusion therapy (intravenous thrombolysis, thrombectomy and stenting) are discussed. The course of disease and secondary antithrombotic prophylaxis are analyzed.
Cryptogenic stroke (CS) is defined as a subtype of stroke associated with a heterogeneous group of pathogenetic mechanisms that remained undetermined in the course of advanced diagnostic research. One third or fourth of the ischemic strokes is cryptogenic. Paradoxical embolism is considered the important cause of cryptogenic stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) in young patients. It may occur via the following: patent foramen ovale (PFO), atrial septal defect (ASD), and pulmonary arteriovenous malformation (PAVM). When interviewing patients with suspected paradoxical embolism to obtain their health history, a practitioner should consider factors associated with Valsalva maneuvers, deep vein thrombosis/PE or predisposing conditions or situations, as well as symptoms of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (telangiectasia of the skin and mucous membranes, hemorrhagic syndrome) and pulmonary arteriovenous malformations (PAVMs) (shortness of breath, hemoptysis). If paradoxical embolism is suspected, it is necessary to conduct a stepwise diagnostic search, including transcranial Doppler ultrasound with bubble test, contrast-enhanced transesophageal echocardiography, and CT angiopulmonography. Diagnosis of relevant clinical conditions involves a search of atrial tachyarrhythmias, deep vein thrombosis, and thrombophilia. As the pathogenetic role of ASD and PAVMs in the development of embolic cryptogenic stroke is beyond doubt, the clinical significance of PFO should be determined taking into account several factors, including the presence of deep vein thrombosis/PE, the severity of the right-left shunt, the presence of ASD, the RoPE score, and detection of thrombophilia. The secondary prevention techniques of ischemic stroke or TIA with underlying PFO should be selected on a case-by-case basis, depending on the clinical significance of the anomaly, comorbid pathology, life expectancy of the patient: endovascular occlusion, anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapy. The secondary prevention with underlying ASD and LAVM includes surgical techniques such as endovascular occlusion or open surgery followed by monitoring of their effectiveness.
Abstract. Cerebral neurological complications (CNC) are the most common form of infective endocarditis (IE) extracardiac manifestations. They have important clinical implications, which justifies the need to study them.Purpose of the study: to evaluate symptomatic CNC (prevalence, predictors, effect on the prognosis) in patients with «left-sided» IE who have undergone cardiac surgery, according to the register of the Federal Center for Cardiovascular Surgery.Materials and methods. A retrospective review of data from the hospital information system was carried out in one of the Federal Centers for Cardiovascular Surgery of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation. In patients with significant/probable «left-sided» (mitral and/or aortic valves) acute/subacute IE at age of ≥ 18 years, the frequency of CNC and their subtypes was assessed, predictors and effect on the prognosis of the disease were determined. Differences between groups of patients depending on the status of the presence of CNC were assessed using the χ2 test, Fisher’s exact test and the Mann–Whitney test. Binary cross tables were further analyzed to calculate the odds ratio (OR). Integral predictive models were also built using the logistic regression algorithm. To assess the effect of CNC on patient survival, Kaplan–Meier analysis was used with the construction of survival curves.Results. For the analysis, 222 cases of IE in 216 patients were used. The incidence of CNC was 25.7% (19.4% – ischemic stroke, 5.4% – intracranial hemorrhage, 2.7% – meningitis, encephalitis and/or abscess). CNC predictors were embologenic vegetations: size > 10 mm (OR 6.3; 95% CI: 3.0–13.0), mobile (OR 8.5; 95% CI: 3.2–22.3) and multiple (OR 4.9; 95% CI: 2.1–11.4) vegetation; the level of white blood cells ≥ 10 × 109/L (OR 2.1, 1.1–3.8), as well as systemic embolism (OR 3.6; 95% CI: 1.6–7.9). The accuracy of the logistic regression model obtained using the above predictors was 83% (on the test set). No effect of CNC on the prognosis (in-hospital and long-term mortality, stroke in the long-term period) was found.Conclusion. Neurological complications have a high prevalence, occurring in one in four patients with «left-sided» IE. Ischemic stroke is the most common subtype of CNC, and vegetation characteristics are a determining factor of the embologenic potential of endocarditis. There was no effect on the prognosis (in-hospital and long-term mortality) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery.
Ischemic stroke is an extremely heterogeneous disease: there are more than 200 causes of cerebral catastrophe. Early identification of the pathogenetic mechanism (subtype) of ischemic stroke allows planning an individual secondary prevention strategy, which includes a wide range of pharmaceutical and surgical methods. The article presents the characteristics of cardioembolic (associated with atrial fibrillation and flutter, prosthetic valves, chronic heart failure, left ventricle thrombus, infective endocarditis, open foramen ovale, etc.), atherothrombotic (due to extra- and intracranial atherosclerosis), lacunar and cryptogenic stroke, as well as less common causes of the disease, in particular cervical or cerebral artery dissection. Issues of secondary prevention of stroke according to the pathogenetic subtype are described and summarized as an algorithm. The article is illustrated with clinical examples.
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