Postpartum Cerebral Angiopathy: Reversible Vasoconstriction Assessed by Transcranial Doppler Ultrasounds

Abstract

Postpartum cerebral angiopathy is a distinct reversible clinicoradiological syndrome which develops shortly after a normal pregnancy. It may belong to the poorly defined group of acute benign cerebral angiopathy, in which multisegmental narrowings of cerebral arteries are also reversible. In a 22-year-old woman with postpartum cerebral angiopathy, sequential transcranial Doppler ultrasounds showed that the flow disturbances began to improve 4 days after onset, and normalized 4 weeks later. A vasoconstriction response to acute severe hypertension is likely to explain this reversible angiopathy.