Cerebral Venous Thrombosis

See related article, p 2180 .Cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) refers to local clot formation and occlusion of intracranial venous structures, including the dural venous sinuses, cortical veins, and the proximal part of the jugular veins, leading to an acute or delayed manifestation with a large variety of symptoms and signs, making the diagnosis difficult. Diagnostics have improved after introduction of noninvasive imaging modalities, resulting in increased number of patients detected as well as improved outcomes partly because of recognition of less severe cases. CVT is still an underinvestigated disease, and therefore, new studies from different parts of the world are most welcome for increasing our currently modest knowledge.In this issue of the journal, Devasagayam et al report on their findings from a well-defined geographical region of Australia (Adelaide, South Australia) inhabited by almost 1 million adults.1 Briefly, they retrospectively attempted to identify all adult CVT cases treated at all 7 public hospitals in their region between years 2005 and 2011 and made 3 distinct observations: (1) they could confirm 105 adult cases, leading to an incidence of 15.7 cases per million inhabitants annually, which is the highest figure ever reported; (2) they searched for CVT cases through electronic hospital discharge diagnosis records by using diagnostic codes for CVT, but also used a phrase (for text variations containing venous thromb) in searching through their radiology repository, which delivered 40 (38%) …