Prolonged and recurrent reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome in the postpartum period
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 11, 2025
Author Spotlight: Modeling an Aspect of Preeclampsia in Female Mice Using Hypoxic Human Placenta-Derived Small Extracellular Vesicles
Published on: January 26, 2024
Cheran Elangovan1, Linda Sherine Alfred2, Nariman Noorbakhsh-Sabet2
1Department of Neurology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, Tennessee, USA celangov@uthsc.edu.
Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) can develop in the early postpartum period and generally has a good prognosis. A 35-year-old woman developed postpartum RCVS, which had started as severe headache after a blood transfusion; a diagnostic cerebral angiogram showed diffuse vasospasm of intracranial vessels. Her clinical course was complicated by subarachnoid haemorrhage, strokes, seizure and recurrent vasospasm, which lasted for 4 weeks. The vasospasm was refractory to nifedipine and nimodipine but improved with intra-arterial verapamil, followed by oral verapamil and magnesium oxide.
Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) can develop in the early postpartum period and generally has a good prognosis. A 35-year-old woman developed postpartum RCVS, which had started as severe headache after a blood transfusion; a diagnostic cerebral angiogram showed diffuse vasospasm of intracranial vessels. Her clinical course was complicated by subarachnoid haemorrhage, strokes, seizure and recurrent vasospasm, which lasted for 4 weeks. The vasospasm was refractory to nifedipine and nimodipine but improved with intra-arterial verapamil, followed by oral verapamil and magnesium oxide.
