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Background: Haemorrhagic stroke (HS) accounts for nearly half of the paediatric strokes. The aetiology of HS in childhood is not well defined in the Indian context., Objectives: To study the aetiological profile and short-term neurological outcome of children with HS from North India., Methods: In a prospective observational study, consecutive patients >28 days to <12 years of age admitted with a diagnosis of HS were enrolled. Demography, clinical, radiological details and investigations were recorded. Short-term outcomes were assessed at three months follow-up with the Paediatric Cerebral Performance Category scale and Paediatric Stroke Outcome Measure (PSOM)., Results: A total of 48 children with HS were enrolled. The median age was 6 months (1-58 months), and 33 (69%) were <2 years old. Vitamin K deficiency-related bleeding disorder (VKDB, 44%), central nervous system infections (19%), arteriovenous malformations (13%) and inherited coagulation disorders (8%) were the most common risk factors for HS. VKDB and inherited coagulation disorders were more frequent in children <2 years of age, and arteriovenous malformations were more frequent in children >2 years of age (p = 0.001). During hospitalization, 21 (44%) children died. Older age, low Glasgow coma score (<8) at admission and paediatric intracerebral haemorrhage score ≥2 were associated with mortality at discharge (p = <0.05). Among survivors, 15 (56%) children had neurological deficits (PSOM >0.5) at three month follow-up., Conclusion: VKDB, inherited coagulation disorders, central nervous system infections and arteriovenous malformations were the most common risk factors for HS. VKDB is the single most important preventable risk factor for HS in infants., (© The Author(s) [2022]. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objective: To investigate the occurrence of ischemic stroke in patients with congenital bleeding disorders., Patients and Methods: Patients with congenital bleeding disorders who presented an objectively proven ischemic stroke were obtained by means of a time unlimited Pubmed search. Appropriate key words and Medical subject headings were used. Cross-checking of the references was also carried out., Results: There were four cases of Fibrinogen defects or Factor VII deficiency; seven patients had Hemophilia (6 hemophilia A and 1 hemophilia B); eight cases of FXI deficiency and six patients with von Willebrand Disease. One patient had a congenital platelet disorder. Age varied from 7 to 80 (mean age 38.6). 15 were male and 11 female. In four patients gender was not reported. The ratio of Myocardial Infarction to Ischemic stroke was 12.28 for the hemophilias, 7.83 for vW Disease and 2.75 for the Rare Bleeding Disorders. Risk factors were present in most patients, replacement therapy and old age being the most frequent., Conclusions: The differences in the prevalence of ischemic stroke vs coronary arterial disease seen in patient with congenital bleeding disorders indicate that clotting defects assure an uneven protection from atherothrombosis. Since the mechanisms underlying these differences are unknown, they represent a field of potential future investigation.

The diagnostic workup in patients with ischaemic stroke often includes testing for prothrombotic conditions. However, the clinical relevance of coagulation abnormalities in ischaemic stroke is uncertain. Therefore, we reviewed what is presently known about the association between inherited and acquired coagulation disorders and ischaemic stroke, with a special emphasis on the methodological aspects. Good-quality data in this field are scarce, and most studies fall short on epidemiological criteria for causal inference. While inherited coagulation disorders are recognised risk factors for venous thrombosis, there is no substantial evidence for an association with arterial ischaemic stroke. Possible exceptions are the prothrombin G20210A mutation in adults and protein C deficiency in children. There is proof of an association between the antiphospholipid syndrome and ischaemic stroke, but the clinical significance of isolated mildly elevated antiphospholipid antibody titres is unclear. Evidence also suggests significant associations of increased homocysteine and fibrinogen concentrations with ischaemic stroke, but whether these associations are causal is still debated. Data on other acquired coagulation abnormalities are insufficient to allow conclusions regarding causality. For most coagulation disorders, a causal relation with ischaemic stroke has not been definitely established. Hence, at present, there is no valid indication for testing all patients with ischaemic stroke for these conditions. Large prospective population-based studies allowing the evaluation of interactive and subgroup effects are required to appreciate the role of coagulation disorders in the pathophysiology of arterial ischaemic stroke and to guide the management of individual patients.

Although hypercoagulable states are most often associated with venous thromboses, arterial thromboses are reported in protein C, protein S, antithrombin deficient patients and in those with factor V Leiden, components of hereditary thrombophilia. Because these arterial thromboses (peripheral artery disease, myocardial infarction, and cerebral infarction) mostly affect young persons, aged below 45 years, it is important to test and treat these thrombophilic defects. Because the relation thrombophilia--arterial thromboses is still under debate, due to conflicting data, this article is a review of studies published in literature regarding the implication of the above-mentioned thrombophilic defects in cerebral infarcts.

In children, clinical recognition of stroke and determination of its exact etiology are extremely difficult. The authors described a case of cryptogenic stroke in a 14-year-old-boy with asymptomatic atrial septal defect and hypercoagulable state. Paradoxical embolism was hypothesized as the responsible etiopathological mechanism. It is crucial to increase clinician awareness of stroke in children.

Stroke is an uncommon but increasingly recognised cause of mortality and long-term neurological morbidity in children. A significant number of these events appear to be caused by thromboembolic disease and, as with other childhood thrombotic problems, the incidence of central nervous system events appears highest during the neonatal period. In contrast to peripheral arterial and venous thrombotic problems, it is likely that a proportion of cerebral thromboembolic events occur either in utero or perinatally and reflect different risk factors from those occurring in older infants and children. The pathophysiology of perinatal stroke is complex and in many cases is likely to be multifactorial. It is now recognised that risk factors may relate to both maternal and placental problems as well as fetal and neonatal disorders. Large prospective studies of perinatal stroke are currently lacking and efforts to define the relative contribution from each of these areas are at an early stage. The complex nature of these disorders requires collaboration between a number of different disciplines including obstetrics, fetal medicine, pathology, neonatology and neurology. Of particular interest to haematologists is the possible impact of prothrombotic abnormalities in the pathophysiology of these events and also the potential for the use of antithrombotic agents in both management and prevention.

Unlabelled: PURPOSE OF REVIEW Childhood: stroke is more common than brain tumor, but because there is a wide spectrum in terms of etiology and most centers see only a few cases every year, there have been few large studies of genetic and environmental risk factors until recently. This review focuses on the clinical and radiologic methodology required to distinguish phenotypes in patients, and it focuses on the available data on genetic predisposition., Recent Findings: A number of conditions with Mendelian inheritance (eg, sickle cell disease) predispose to childhood stroke, but the search for epistatic polymorphisms that explain why some but not all of these patients are affected has been hampered by our poor understanding of the pathophysiology. Emergency vascular imaging, including arteriography and venography, will almost certainly assist with the description of stroke subtypes with different genetic predisposition in these patients and in the important group of children who were completely healthy before their stroke. Environmental exposure (eg, to infection, hypoxemia, and vitamins) may play a crucial role in modifying genetic expression and must be described carefully in prospective studies., Summary: Now that much of the work on classifying stroke subtypes in children has been undertaken, international collaboration is likely to lead to identification of the genetic and environmental risk factors, and thus to primary and secondary prevention.

Stroke in children is a rare condition and has a multifactorial etiology. The association between ischemic stroke in young adults and some minor cardiac abnormalities such as atrial septal aneurysm with or without interatrial shunting has recently been reported: however, the pathogenetic mechanism still remains unclear. Genetic and acquired prothrombotic disorders are also risk factors for cerebral ischemic events in children. We report a case of ischemic stroke in a 10-year-old female child who was heterozygous for the prothrombin G20210A variant and who presented with an atrial septal aneurysm associated with an interatrial shunt. We hypothesize that these risk factors play a synergic role but their relative importance and whether alone they can determine cerebral embolism remain to be determined.