Hospital prevalence of cerebral venous thrombosis and risk factors in Togo

Introduction Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a specific case of stroke. The CVT’s semiology may vary according to venous topography. Risk situations are multiple, dominated in our context by infectious, haematological, post-operative and peri-partum causes. Objective To determine the hospital prevalence of CTVs, risk factors and topographic variants in imaging. Methods This was a retrospective cross-sectional study between June 12, 2015 and June 11, 2016. The study included patients admitted in the neurology department.with a brain scan displaying an infarct not of an arterial origin, close to a venous sinus, sometimes with a haemorrhagic component, or an atypical intra-parenchymal hemorrhage not for a hypertensive origin. The diagnosis of CVT was confirmed by MRI. We excluded patients with hypodense lesions with annular contrast, or without respecting venous topography or located far from the venous sinus. Results During the study period, 1070 patients were admitted for stroke. Five cases of CVT were diagnosed. The CVT hospital prevalence was of 0.46%. The mean age was 40 years (sex ratio 0.6) with a female predominance. Risk factors were chronic alcoholism, HIV/AIDS infection. The affected venous territories were mainly the upper sagittal sinus, the straight sinus, the lateral sinuses. CVT was hemorrhagic in 60% of cases. Mortality was high (60%). The mean duration between the symptoms onset to the hospital admission was of 1 month. Conclusion CVT is poorly described in our health facilities and the diagnosis is often delayed.