Amyloid angiopathy and lobar cerebral haemorrhage

Seven cases of lobar cerebral haemorrhage due to amyloid angiopathy were found among 60 necropsy cases of intracerebral haemorrhage. Clinically five patients were demented and two had hypertension. Immediately after the onset of stroke there was a high incidence of headache and vomiting, followed by nuchal rigidity. Amyloid angiopathy was most prominent in the cerebral cortex and the leptomeninges. Senile plaques were noted in all cases. One should suspect that a haemorrhage may be due to amyloid angiopathy, when lobar cerebral haemorrhage occurs in an aged, normotensive patient with or without dementia. Surgical evacuation of the haematoma is inadvisable, because of the diffuse nature of amyloid angiopathy, high recurrence rate and less tendency to cause brain stem compression.