Clinical features
Arteriovenous malformations are usually clinically silent until an event such as bleeding or epilepsy occurs.
Presentations include:
- intracranial bleeding - more often intracerebral or intraventricular than subarachnoid. Usually in younger people - 20-40 years - than haemorrhage associated with aneurysms.
- seizures - generalised or focal; common especially if it involves the cortical surface
- progressive neurological deficits - often involving the basal ganglia. Presents with hemiparesis, dementia, visual field defects. Motor / sensory defects in absence of cranial nerve involvement due to brainstem AVM - rare.
- headache - may sometimes appear similar to migraine
- transient ischaemic attacks
- cranial bruits - especially over eyeball
Reference
- Hartmann A, Mohr JP: Acute management of brain arteriovenous malformations. Curr Treat Options Neurol. 2015, 17:346.
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