ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) is a rare condition difficult to diagnose because of the wide variability of the clinical presentations. The goal of our survey was to study the clinical, etiological and progressive aspects of the CVT in Burkina. PATIENTS AND METHOD: We conducted a prospective study for two years, including patients with a diagnosis of CVT based on clinical and imaging criteria. Age, gender, clinical findings and results of complementary tests were recorded as was the clinical outcome. RESULTS: The study included 17 patients (seven men and ten women) mean age 42.5 years. The inaugural signs were sub-acute in two-thirds of the patients. Headache was a constant finding (n=17 patients, 100%); 15 patients (88%) had unilateral or bilateral motor deficits. An infectious syndrome was common (60%). The brain CT scan generally revealed spontaneous high density signals from a sinus. d-dimeres were high in 15 cases. Four patients were HIV-1 seropositive and four had rhino-sinusitis. The other etiological factors were rare. Heparin was administred in 80% of patients, followed by oral anticoagulation for three months on average. CONCLUSION: Our cohort presents a relatively different clinical picture compared with the literature due to the high frequency of the infectious etiologies. A prospective multicentric study with more specific diagnostic tools could be useful to learn more about the epidemiology of CVT in Subsaharan Africa.
