Makoto Takemaru, Masaru Kuriyama*, Takahiro Himeno, Yuji Shiga, Yuhei Kanaya, Shinichi Takeshima, Takeshi Yoshimoto, Kazuhiro Takamatsu, Yutaka Shimoe, Shinzo Ohta and Akio Tanaka
Background: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVT) occurs commonly in young female adults and is caused by various risk factors. Our aim was to determine the incidence, clinical characteristics, and risk factors of Japanese CVT patients.
Patients and methods: We performed a retrospective study of CVT patients from January 2010 to June 2015. In the patients who had hyperhomocysteinemia, vitamin levels were measured. To define the clinical characteristics in patients with hyperhomocysteinemia, we statistically compared them to those patients with normal levels of homocysteine.
Results: Sixteen patients (aged 54.6 ± 17.7 years; 13 men and 3 women) were included. The incidence of CVT was 0.23% among all types of strokes or 0.30% of acute ischemic strokes, which was lower than previously reported. The patients were characterized by advanced age, low frequency of headaches, and few female patients, especially female patients using oral contraceptives. The predisposing conditions included a notably high incidence of hyperhomocysteinemia (56.3%). They also included deficiencies of folate, vitamin B12, vitamin B6, or combined deficiencies. Marked hyperhomocysteinemia over 100 nmol/ml was noted in combined deficiencies.
Conclusions: CVT in Japan commonly occurred in older males. The prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia as a risk factor of CVT was high, and the main underlying disorders were folate and vitamin B12 or B6 deficiencies. This is clinically important, because these acquired risks can be corrected by supplementation therapy to prevent the recurrence of CVT.
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