Physiologic Studies of Arteriovenous Anomalies of the Brain

Abstract

T HERE has been considerable attention given the clinical and pathological features of the vascular anomalies and tumors of the brain without, however, considering the physiological changes in the cerebral and general circulation that accompany such lesions. Our attention was drawn to these changes by the fact that the finding of a tremendously increased cerebral blood flow in a patient, considered to be suffering from idiopathic epilepsy for 15 years, led to the establishing of the correct etiology of the patient's convulsive seizures. This patient was proven to have an arteriovenous vascular anomaly of the brain. Our physiologic studies were repeated in a second patient known to have a large arteriovenous angioma of the left cerebral hemisphere, and confirmed the findings of the first case.