[Cerebral cavernous angiomas in pregnancy. Two cases and a review of literature]

Whether pregnancy increases the risk of bleeding of cavernous angioma, as it does with other types of cerebral vascular malformation, is not known at present. We monitored the pregnancies of two patients with cerebral cavernous angiomas. One patient, whose long-standing epilepsy had until then been considered cryptogenic, with seizure occurring every 3 to 5 years, remained asymptomatic throughout her pregnancy which ended in spontaneous abortion. The parietal cavernous angioma was partially calcified and the tissue showed signs of earlier hemorrhage. The first symptom in the second patient was first-trimester hemorrhage from inside and around the angioma which was located in the optic chiasm. The lesion was fully excised in both patients. We review the literature and analyze the mechanisms that may be implicated in the clinical presentation during pregnancy of this type of cerebral vascular malformation.