Haemorrhagic stroke in pregnancy.

OBJECTIVE: To present a case of acute haemorrhagic stroke during 3rd trimester of pregnancy and to describe management and successful delivery of healthy baby. CASE REPORT: Haemorrhagic stroke is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality. Prognosis can be improved only by urgent diagnosis and care. We report a case of pregnant woman at 37th week of pregnancy with acute haemorrhagic stroke of unknown etiology with clinical appearance of thunderclap headaches and overall disorientation. We describe diagnostic approach and a successful management followed by further differential diagnosis and treatment. The foetus was delivered by acute caesarean section at 37th week of pregnancy. CONCLUSION: Occurrence of haemorrhagic stroke in pregnancy is rare. There are no specific guidelines that recommend the time and mode of delivery; therefore, each case is assessed individually.

Intravenous thrombolysis for stroke in pregnancy should be administered if the benefit outweighs the risk: A case report and recommended diagnostic workup.

INTRODUCTION: There is an ongoing debate about the use of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator in acute stroke during pregnancy. The aim of our case report is to present that even in a small stroke centre intravenous thrombolysis can be used on a pregnant woman if the benefit outweighs the risk and to summarize the diagnostic workup in a pregnant woman with stroke. CASE REPORT: Our case describes a 31-year-old woman presenting in her third trimester with a sudden onset of slurred speech, severe right hemiparesis, facial nerve central palsy, eyes deviation to the left, right side hemianopia, hemisensory loss, psychomotor agitation and pain in the right lower limb. She was successfully treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator with almost complete recovery (NIHSS 1 after 10 days), and 23 days after intravenous thrombolysis, she delivered in the 37th week a healthy male infant. The first documented successful outcome from thrombolysis for this condition in Slovakia supports the notion of giving intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator to pregnant patients with disabling ischaemic stroke who meet the criteria for thrombolysis. DISCUSSION: At the end of case study, a recommended diagnostic workup for acute treatment of stroke in pregnant women is presented.