Analysis of postpartum reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome in China: A case report and literature review

Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (RCVS) is a rare clinical syndrome accompanying with severe headache as its main symptom. Postpartum reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (PPRCVS) refers to RCVS occurring in the puerperium, in which it has a low incidence, and that is easily missed diagnosed and misdiagnosed in clinical practice. By searching in CNKI and Wanfang databases, 9 published articles reported PPRCVS were found, totally including 12 cases with PPRCVS. The clinical data of these 12 cases were accordingly analyzed and summarized. The characteristics of these cases were compared with those reported in other countries, and eventually the clinical characteristics of Chinese PPRCVS patients were summarized. The clinical characteristics of Chinese PPRCVS patients were basically as same as those found in other countries, while the onset age was earlier, PPRCVS often occurred earlier after delivery, with higher proportions of concomitant symptoms and abnormal laboratory and imaging examinations; moreover, and fewer patients were diagnosed by digital subtraction angiography (DSA).