Objective:To determine whether the risk of arteriovenous malformation (AVM) rupture is increased during pregnancy and puerperium.Methods:Participants included 979 female patients with intracranial AVM admitted to Beijing Tiantan Hospital between 1960 and 2010. Two neurosurgery residents reviewed medical records for each case. Of them, 393 patients with ruptured AVM between 18 and 40 years of age were used for case-crossover analysis. Number of children born and clinical information during pregnancy and puerperium were retrieved to identify whether AVM rupture occurred during this period.Results:Of the 979 women, 797 hemorrhages occurred during 25,578 patient-years of follow-up, yielding an annual hemorrhage rate of 3.11%. The annual AVM hemorrhage rate in patients aged 18 to 40 years (n = 579) was 2.78%, lower than the rate in other age groups (odds ratio = 0.75, 95% confidence interval 0.65–0.86, p < 0.05). Of the 393 patients with rupture of AVM aged 18 to 40 years, 12 hemorrhages occurred in 12 patients over 452 pregnancies, yielding a hemorrhage rate of 2.65% per pregnancy or 3.32% per year. Among the remaining 381 patients, 441 hemorrhages occurred during 10,627 patient-years of follow-up, yielding an annual hemorrhage rate of 4.14%. The odds ratio for rupture of AVM during pregnancy and puerperium, compared with the control period, was 0.71 (95% confidence interval 0.61–0.82).Conclusions:No increased risk of hemorrhage was found in patients with cerebral AVM during pregnancy and the puerperium. We therefore would not advise against pregnancy in women with intracranial AVM.

OBJECT The aim of this study was to describe the baseline clinical features and long-term outcomes of patients with moyamoya disease (MMD) based on a 25-year period at a single center in China. METHODS  Data obtained in 528 consecutive patients with MMD treated at the authors' hospital from 1984 to 2010 were reviewed retrospectively. Events of transient ischemic attack, new infarction, and hemorrhage were included. The Kaplan-Meier risk of stroke was calculated. RESULTS  The mean (± SD) patient age was 26 ± 13 years (range 2–67 years), and the female/male ratio was 0.9:1. There were 332 cases of ischemia and 196 hemorrhages. Adults had a higher rate of bleeding than children (50.7% vs 14.0%, respectively; p < 0.001). One hundred twenty-two patients were treated conservatively, and 406 patients underwent revascularization procedures. Of 528 patients, 331 (62.7%) had at least 1 year of follow-up (median 39.5 months) and data from these patients were analyzed. Rebleeding and mortality rates in patients with hemorrhagic MMD (n = 104) were higher than in those with ischemic MMD (n = 227) (26.9% vs 2.2% [p < 0.001] and 4.8% vs 0.4% [p < 0.05], respectively). Twenty-five of 60 (41.7%) conservatively treated patients and 8 of 271 (2.9%) surgically treated patients experienced rebleeding events, a difference that was significant in the Kaplan-Meier curve of rebleeding (p < 0.01). An improvement in perfusion was found in 164 of 224 (73.2%) surgically treated patients 1 month after discharge. However, there was no significant difference in the rate of ischemic events in the surgical and conservative groups (18.8% and 28.3%, respectively; p = 0.09). Among the 104 hemorrhagic cases, rebleeding attacks were observed in 25 patients in the nonsurgical group (n = 60) and 3 patients in the surgical group (n = 44) (41.7% and 6.8%, respectively; OR 9.7 [95% CI 2.7–35.0]; p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS  There was no difference in the sex distribution of Chinese patients with MMD. Patients with hemorrhagic MMD had a much higher rate of rebleeding and poorer prognosis than those with the ischemic type. Surgical revascularization procedures can improve cerebral perfusion and have a positive impact in preventing rebleeding in patients with hemorrhagic MMD.

There is a high risk of rebleeding after the first haemorrhagic episode in Chinese patients with haemorrhagic moyamoya disease. Revascularisation surgery can improve regional blood flow and have greater efficacy at preventing rebleeding than conservative treatment.