A cerebral arteriovenous malformation is an abnormal connection between the arteries and veins in the brain—specifically, an arteriovenous malformation in the cerebrum.
Foix–Alajouanine syndrome, also called subacute ascending necrotizing myelitis, is a disease caused by an arteriovenous malformation of the spinal cord. In particular, most cases involve dural arteriovenous malformations that present in the lower thoracic or lumbar spinal cord. The condition is named after Charles Foix and Théophile Alajouanine who first described the condition in 1926.
An intracranial aneurysm, also known as a cerebral aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel.
Cerebrovascular disease includes a variety of medical conditions that affect the blood vessels of the brain and the cerebral circulation. Arteries supplying oxygen and nutrients to the brain are often damaged or deformed in these disorders. The most common presentation of cerebrovascular disease is an ischemic stroke or mini-stroke and sometimes a hemorrhagic stroke. Hypertension is the most important contributing risk factor for stroke and cerebrovascular diseases as it can change the structure of blood vessels and result in atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis narrows blood vessels in the brain, resulting in decreased cerebral perfusion. Other risk factors that contribute to stroke include smoking and diabetes. Narrowed cerebral arteries can lead to ischemic stroke, but continually elevated blood pressure can also cause tearing of vessels, leading to a hemorrhagic stroke.
Interventional radiology (IR) is a medical specialty that performs various minimally-invasive procedures using medical imaging guidance, such as x-ray fluoroscopy, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or ultrasound. IR performs both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures through very small incisions or body orifices. Diagnostic IR procedures are those intended to help make a diagnosis or guide further medical treatment, and include image-guided biopsy of a tumor or injection of an imaging contrast agent into a hollow structure, such as a blood vessel or a duct. By contrast, therapeutic IR procedures provide direct treatment—they include catheter-based medicine delivery, medical device placement, and angioplasty of narrowed structures.
In medicine (gastroenterology), angiodysplasia is a small vascular malformation of the gut. It is a common cause of otherwise unexplained gastrointestinal bleeding and anemia. Lesions are often multiple, and frequently involve the cecum or ascending colon, although they can occur at other places. Treatment may be with colonoscopic interventions, angiography and embolization, medication, or occasionally surgery.
Hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), also known as Osler–Weber–Rendu disease and Osler–Weber–Rendu syndrome, is a rare autosomal dominant genetic disorder that leads to abnormal blood vessel formation in the skin, mucous membranes, and often in organs such as the lungs, liver, and brain.
Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH), also known as intracranial bleed, is bleeding within the skull. Subtypes are intracerebral bleeds, subarachnoid bleeds, epidural bleeds, and subdural bleeds.
Embolization refers to the passage and lodging of an embolus within the bloodstream. It may be of natural origin (pathological), in which sense it is also called embolism, for example a pulmonary embolism; or it may be artificially induced (therapeutic), as a hemostatic treatment for bleeding or as a treatment for some types of cancer by deliberately blocking blood vessels to starve the tumor cells.
An arteriovenous fistula is an abnormal connection or passageway between an artery and a vein. It may be congenital, surgically created for hemodialysis treatments, or acquired due to pathologic process, such as trauma or erosion of an arterial aneurysm.
Intraparenchymal hemorrhage (IPH) is one form of intracerebral bleeding in which there is bleeding within brain parenchyma. The other form is intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH).
An embolus, is described as a free-floating mass, located inside blood vessels that can travel from one site in the blood stream to another. An embolus can be made up of solid, liquid, or gas. Once these masses get "stuck" in a different blood vessel, it is then known as an "embolism." An embolism can cause ischemia—damage to an organ from lack of oxygen. A paradoxical embolism is a specific type of embolism in which the embolus travels from the right side of the heart to the left side of the heart and lodges itself in a blood vessel known as an artery. Thus, it is termed "paradoxical" because the embolus lands in an artery, rather than a vein.
A dural arteriovenous fistula (DAVF) or malformation is an abnormal direct connection (fistula) between a meningeal artery and a meningeal vein or dural venous sinus.
A vascular malformation is a blood vessel or lymph vessel abnormality. Vascular malformations are one of the classifications of vascular anomalies, the other grouping is vascular tumors. They may cause aesthetic problems as they have a growth cycle, and can continue to grow throughout life.
Vascular myelopathy refers to an abnormality of the spinal cord in regard to its blood supply. The blood supply is complicated and supplied by two major vessel groups: the posterior spinal arteries and the anterior spinal arteries—of which the Artery of Adamkiewicz is the largest. Both the posterior and anterior spinal arteries run the entire length of the spinal cord and receive anastomotic (conjoined) vessels in many places. The anterior spinal artery has a less efficient supply of blood and is therefore more susceptible to vascular disease. Whilst atherosclerosis of spinal arteries is rare, necrosis in the anterior artery can be caused by disease in vessels originating from the segmental arteries such as atheroma or aortic dissection.
Cerebral vasculitis is vasculitis involving the brain and occasionally the spinal cord. It affects all of the vessels: very small blood vessels (capillaries), medium-size blood vessels, or large blood vessels. If blood flow in a vessel with vasculitis is reduced or stopped, the parts of the body that receive blood from that vessel begins to die. It may produce a wide range of neurological symptoms, such as headache, skin rashes, feeling very tired, joint pains, difficulty moving or coordinating part of the body, changes in sensation, and alterations in perception, thought or behavior, as well as the phenomena of a mass lesion in the brain leading to coma and herniation. Some of its signs and symptoms may resemble multiple sclerosis. 10% have associated bleeding in the brain.
Bonnet–Dechaume–Blanc syndrome, also known as Wyburn-Mason syndrome, is a rare congenital disorder characterized by arteriovenous malformations of the brain, retina or facial nevi. The syndrome has a number of possible symptoms and can, more rarely, affect the skin, bones, kidneys, muscles, and gastrointestinal tract. When the syndrome affects the brain, people can experience severe headaches, seizures, acute stroke, meningism, and progressive neurological deficits due to acute or chronic ischaemia caused by arteriovenous shunting.
Parkes Weber syndrome (PWS) is a congenital disorder of the vascular system. It is an extremely rare condition, and its exact prevalence is unknown. It is named after British dermatologist Frederick Parkes Weber, who first described the syndrome in 1907.
Vein of Galen aneurysmal malformations(VGAMs) and Vein of Galen aneurysmal dilations (VGADs) are the most frequent arteriovenous malformations in infants and fetuses. A VGAM consists of a tangled mass of dilated vessels supplied by an enlarged artery. The malformation increases greatly in size with age, although the mechanism of the increase is unknown. Dilation of the great cerebral vein of Galen is a secondary result of the force of arterial blood either directly from an artery via an arteriovenous fistula or by way of a tributary vein that receives the blood directly from an artery. There is usually a venous anomaly downstream from the draining vein that, together with the high blood flow into the great cerebral vein of Galen causes its dilation. The right sided cardiac chambers and pulmonary arteries also develop mild to severe dilation.
Cavernous hemangioma, also called cavernous angioma, venous malformation, or cavernoma, is a type of venous malformation due to endothelial dysmorphogenesis from a lesion which is present at birth. A cavernoma in the brain is called a cerebral cavernous malformation or CCM. Despite its designation as a hemangioma, a cavernous hemangioma is not a tumor as it does not display endothelial hyperplasia. The abnormal tissue causes a slowing of blood flow through the cavities, or "caverns". The blood vessels do not form the necessary junctions with surrounding cells, and the structural support from the smooth muscle is hindered, causing leakage into the surrounding tissue. It is the leakage of blood, referred to as hemorrhage, that causes a variety of symptoms known to be associated with the condition.
