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Scientific Commentary |
Cerebral vasoconstriction, headache and sometimes stroke: one syndrome or many?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
In this issue, Dr Ducros, Professor Bousser and others from the Lariboisière hospital in Paris report the largest case series to date on the so-called ‘reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome’, or RCVS (Ducros et al., 2007
, p. 3091.). The two key features of the syndrome are ‘thunderclap headaches’ and multifocal but transient narrowing of cerebral arteries. In addition, ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke may supervene. The authors specify this further in that the headache should come on within a minute (less often within 5 min) and should be unusually severe; generally there are several similar episodes over a period of days or weeks. The angiographic signs of arterial narrowing disappear within a few weeks or months. Specific other conditions are ruled out by standard investigations of the brain, serum and cerebrospinal fluid. The authors not only carefully list the range of each symptom and angiographic feature within their group of
Professor Emeritus of Neurology,
University Medical Centre Utrecht,
Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 GA Utrecht, The Netherlands
E-mail: J.vanGijn@umcutrecht.nl