DIAGNOSIS OF VENOUS ISCHEMIC STROKE. PART I (CLINICAL POLYMORPHISM). A REVIEW ARTICLE

Venous stroke being “relatively unknown cerebrovascular disease” occurs in 0.55% of all strokes. Specific diagnostic concerns to venous stroke and the expansion of the volume of radiologic examinations from routinely used non-contrast CT to angiographic and perfusion CT- and MRI, diffusion MRI allowed us to increase the number of diagnosed and verified venous ischemic stroke from 0.4% of all strokes treated in our center to 2.4%, resulting in a 6-fold increase within the 5-year period. Symptoms of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis depend on the size and the growth rate of thrombus. In addition, focal neurological symptoms are diverse and largely dependent on thrombus localization and safety of collateral blood flow, as well as patients’ age and severity of cerebral edema. Cerebral symptoms are nonspecific and may occur in varying degrees of severity related to the localization of the pathological process. The routinely used assessment scales such as the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), Bartel Index, Rankin Scale do not reliably identify this type of acute ischemic stroke. The leading symptom is headache with the mean visual analogue scale of 7.3±1.6. The tendency towards a less pronounced neurologic deficit at admission and mild disability status at discharge have been found among patients with venous stroke. The clinical course of venous stroke mostly demonstrated a tendency towards rapid regression of focal symptomatology and neurological deficit in comparison with arterial ischemic stroke.