High-output heart failure in a newborn.

High-output cardiac failure is rare in newborns. Emergent diagnosis and management of this pathology is crucial. We report the case of a child, currently 12-months old; obstetric background is non-contributory.

Multiple dural arteriovenous fistulas presenting as rapidly progressive dementia.

Introduction: Dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) are important causes of neurological dysfunction and are many times misdiagnosed. Particularly in older populations, DAVFs may present with a selective cognitive dysfunction.

Case Report: The authors describe a 70-year-old woman presenting with a rapidly progressive dementia, very similar in presentation to prion disease.

[Advanced neuroimaging in the diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease].

This article highlights the MR imaging techniques of CT angiography, MR angiography, diffusion weighted images, perfusion MR and CT imaging in the evaluation of stroke acute phase. From a pathophysiologic point of view, advanced computed tomography techniques and stroke magnetic resonance imaging provide much more information about the acute stroke patient as the basis of decision making in acute stroke treatment.

[Central nervous system abnormalities namely secondary brain tumors].

A 22 year-old-man with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia had received prophylactic cranial irradiation and intrathecal chemotherapy. Eighteen years later a cerebellar glioblastoma multiforme was diagnosed. The authors speculate about the possibility that this tumor may have been radiation and/or chemotherapy induced.

Paediatric dissecting posterior cerebral aneurysms: report of two cases and review of the literature.

Introduction: Intracranial aneurysms in the paediatric population are uncommon, accounting for 2% to 6% of all aneurysms, and spontaneous arterial dissection is rarely reported as the cause of aneurysms in children, especially in the posterior cerebral artery.

Methods: Two cases of paediatric spontaneous posterior cerebral artery dissecting aneurysms are reported, one in a 33-month-old male child presenting with aneurysmal rupture and subarachnoid haemorrhage and the other in a 9-year-old boy with an unruptured aneurysm.

Results: The first child was successfully treated by endovascular parent vessel occlusion without neurological deficit and in the second a spontaneous thrombosis of the aneurysm and its parent artery occurred associated with hydrocephalus and a favourable outcome.

[Primary dural intracranial arteriovenous lesions].

Vascular lesions with arteriovenous shunts are a heterogeneous group of diseases composed of three distinct pathological entities: adult type dural arteriovenous fistula, dural sinus malformations with arteriovenous shunts and juvenile type of dural arteriovenous fistula. We review the imaging and clinical features of a series of 51 patients, 48 with adult type dural arteriovenous fistula and 3 with dural sinus malformations. It is emphasized the dynamic nature of these lesions and the role of the venous drainage type in the adult type of dural AVF and veno-oclusive phenomena in the pediatric dural diseases as major determinants of the clinical presentation, prognosis and treatment decision.

[Cervical and intracranial arterial dissection: review of the acute clinical presentation and imaging of 48 cases].

Introduction: Arterial dissections result from longitudinal tear of the vessel wall produced by an intramural haematoma.

Material And Methods: We have retrospectively review 48 consecutive patients with 53 arterial dissections diagnosed by cerebral angiography and/or magnetic resonance imaging.

Results: Arterial dissections were extracranial in 88% (carotid in 58% and vertebral in 30%) and intracranial in 12% of cases, with 19% of multiple dissections.