Objectives: To review the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and therapy of diseases causing cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in the tropics.
Development: Most prevalent conditions causing CVD in the tropics include: sickle cell disease, Takayasu s arteritis, cysticercosis, infective endocarditis, Chagas disease, viral hemorrhagic fevers, gnathostomiasis, leptospirosis, snake bites, cerebral malaria, puerperal venous thrombosis, and tuberculosis. These conditions may cause cerebral infarcts or hemorrhages, and in most instances are related to either vascular damage secondary to angiitis or hemorrhagic diathesis with bleeding in other organs. In some patients, the severity of the neurological picture makes impossible to identify an specific stroke syndrome and cerebrovascular complications are only recognized on neuroimaging studies or autopsy.
Conclusions: There is a group of tropical infectious and non infectious diseases that may cause cerebral infarcts or hemorrhages. Prompt diagnosis and therapy are needed to reduce the severity or brain damage and to avoid recurrent strokes.