[Clinical and neuroradiological studies of eclampsia--cerebral vasospasm and relation to the brain edema].

Clinical and neuroradiological studies involving cerebral angiography were conducted in four patients with eclampsia. In three cases (case 1, 2 and 4), neurological focal signs, abnormal low density areas on cranial CT and T2 high intensity areas on cranial MRI disappeared within a month. But in one case (case 3), cerebral infarction occurred and right hemiparesis and aphasia persisted. Cerebral angiography in the acute phase demonstrated vasospasm in all cases and arterial occlusion in the middle cerebral artery due to vasospasm in case 3. Angiography demonstrated several types of spasms, including diffuse, peripheral and multi local. Furthermore, in some cases, diffuse vasospasms were recognized at the siphon and extracranial portions of the internal carotid artery. In one case (Case 4), segmental vasospasms were detected in the bilateral vertebral arteries. Three to four weeks later, follow-up cerebral angiography was performed in three cases. Cerebral vasospasms had partially or completely recovered. Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) was excluded by lumbar puncture and neuroradiological findings in all cases. We concluded that eclampsia itself causes cerebral vasospasm and that the mechanism of vasospasm is different from that of SAH, since cerebral vasospasm occurred in the extracranial cerebral arteries. We suspected that cerebral vasospasm in eclampsia causes cerebral ischemia, which leads to cytotoxic edema and dysfunction of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and cerebral autoregulation. With this background, brain edema, especially vasogenic edema, may easily occur and clinical symptoms of eclampsia may appear when the blood pressure rapidly increases.