Frontal Lobe Venous Angioma

[Vonnie457]

I am a 59 year old female, I had a Brain Stem Stroke in 2002 and have worked hard to recover from that life changing issue.  Recently, I have been experiencing passing out,  6 times since my stroke, the worst spell I have had was last year while driving down the freeway I passed out and wrecked.   During my hospital stay the  tests showed that I have not had a seziure, but I don't know if I understand if you can have seziures without it not showing up on a scan.   I have been to the heart doctor, Neurologist and anyone who will look at my medical files to arrive at some answer as to what could be wrong with me.  I, recently went to a doctor who saw that I have a Venous Angioma, this was the first time that I had ever heard this word.  I looked back on all of my reports from the MRI - MA and to my shock I have one in the frontal lobe of my brain.  Everything I have read says that the Angimona stay silent but if they become active it could look like the symptons I've described below.  Also, in the information I have read sometimes if the Venous Angimona don't even show when they are oozing on scans.  Please let me know your thoughts.  Is there a chance this could be active and causing me these problems.

[DawnL76]

I have similar issues and just left my neurologist office after getting my MRI results of a venous angioma. I had never heard of it either.

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Thank you very much for your questions; although it is quite difficult for me to give you a precise opinion here without having seen you in clinic, but I would like to provide you some useful information.

Venous angiomas are variants in the brain’s normal venous system.  Usually, the venous pathways are separated by normal brain tissue but in venous angioma there is an abnormal appearance of few normal veins. These veins also act like normal veins from a physiologic perspective. Therefore, venous angiomas are very often benign, but 1/3 of the patients have associated with other brain malformations that carry a higher morbidity/mortality.  Most of the times venous angiomas are quickly identified on MRI, but some of the smaller vascular malformations may be difficult to identify. Since you have neurological symptoms, I would recommend you to see a neurologist who can evaluate the details of your case and could better determine the insight of your situation.  If your neurologist identifies further warning signs he or she would like to refer you to a neurosurgeon much sooner.  Hope this helps.

[DawnL76]

Thx