Cerebral strokes associated with pregnancy and the puerperium.

Thirty-one cases of ischaemic cerebral stroke occurring in association with childbirth were fully investigated. The pathological basis of non-haemorrhagic carotid territory strokes in pregnant or puerperal women proved to be similar to that in non-pregnant women of the same age group. Over 70% were due to occlusive cerebral arterial disease or ischaemic lesions unrelated to thrombosis of the intracranial venous system. Comparisons are made with some other reported series in which only a minority of the patients were investigated by angiography, but in which intracranial venous occlusion was assumed to be the primary lesion. It seems likely that many of these patients may also have suffered arterial rather than venous lesions.