Epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of cerebral venous thrombosis

Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a distinct type of stroke that was described for the first time almost 200 years ago. In contrast to arterial stroke, most adult patients with CVT are in their thirties or forties and less than 10% are over the age of 65. Because of gender specific risk factors (pregnancy, puerperium and oral contraceptives), the condition affects women three times more often than men. Headache is the most common symptom, present in 90% of patients. Other frequent signs and symptoms are papilledema, seizures and focal neurological deficits. A venous infarct, often hemorrhagic, is found in approximately half of all patients. Anticoagulation with therapeutic dose of heparin is the primary treatment. This thesis describes the results of studies we performed on the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of CVT.