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Cerebral venous thrombosis is an uncommon event which presents a wide spectrum of sometimes extraneurological signs different from the classical clinical presentation. We report the cases of two middle-aged women who developed thrombosis of the left lateral sinus spread-ing to the internal jugular vein from the sigmoid sinus. The time course of the symptoms suggested that intracranial thrombosis occurred first. No infectious or neoplastic local disease could be found but both women were taking oral contraceptives. Medical treatment led to good reperfusion of the intracranial sinuses but occlusion of the jugular vein persisted despite prolonged oral anticoagulants. Long-term outcome was favorable with residual benign epilepsy in one patient, and occurrence of an arteriovenous fistula in the other.

A 74-year- man was hospitalized for subacute aphasia and right hemiparesis. He had had chronic lymphoid leukemia for 11 years and had been treated 5 months earlier with 3 courses of fludarabine. Magnetic resonance imaging showed lesions of the temporo-occipital white matter compatible with progressive multifocal leukoencephalitis (PML). The presence of JC virus was demonstrated first by in situ hybridation after a brain biopsy and second with polymerase chain reaction on CSF. The diagnosis of PML was confirmed. The causality of fludarabine treatment is discussed.

Thrombosis of deep cerebral veins is a rare condition, and is associated with a poor prognosis. We report four new cases observed between 1994 and 1997. All four cases were women, aged less than 45 years. Initial symptoms associated alteration of consciousness, change in mental status, progressive headache and vomiting. We observed also uni or bilateral signs of long tract injury. In three cases, diagnosis initially suspected by CT scan was confirmed with encephalic MRI. For the last patient, conventional angiography was needed. Thrombosis affected straight sinus, vein of Galien and internal cerebral veins in all patients. Basilar veins were also affected in one patient, without dural sinuses extension. Lateral sinus was involved in two others cases, and superior sagittal in the last patient. Etiology remains undetermined in one patient, associated with post-partum, use of oral contraceptive pill, and familial protein S deficiency, one case each. Outcome was favorable in all four cases with anticoagulation therapy. Precocity of diagnosis is determinant and MRI is usefull in this issue. These observations show that evolution of deep veins thrombosis can be favorable, without needing fibrinolytic therapy.

Two cases of isolated dissection of the basilar artery responsible for ischemic stroke are reported. This rare condition is still associated with a poor outcome. Most patients were male and the clinical presentation consisted of ischemic symptoms or subarachnoid hemorrhage in posterior circulation. Angiography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging are usefull for the diagnostic, showing parietal hematoma, or as for our first case, double lumens. Optimal therapeutic is unknown.

A 63-year-old man presented suddenly and spontaneously an isolated painless oculomotor palsy of the nerve abducens. As no etiology could be suspected a head MRI was performed. It showed a T1 hypersignal of the intracavernous segment of the internal carotid artery with a double-lumen pattern typical of dissection. The patient was treated with aspirin and recovered from clinical symptoms in 10 weeks. A control MRI was performed 3 months after the onset of symptoms and showed the regression of the images of dissection. There was no ischemic lesion of the brain. This case underlines the diversity of the symptoms of spontaneous dissections of cervicocephalic arteries, especially absence of pain, palsies of cranial nerve that are not always limited to lower cranial nerve, and existence of dissections limited to the intracranial segment of the carotid artery. It suggests the interest of MRI in the diagnosis of isolated oculomotor nerve palsies.