Spontaneous thrombosis of a malformation of the vein of Galen.

Department of Interventional Neuroradiology, University of São Paulo School of Medicine, São Paulo SP, Brazil: MD, PhD; MD; MD, PhD, Director and Chairman. Arteriovenous malformation of the vein of Galen (AMVG) is a rare congenital intracranial vascular malformation, which results in fistulous connections between primitive choroidal arteries and the median vein of the prosencephalon (MVP) of Markowisk. The clinical picture varies according to age. In newborns and children under 12 months, the symptoms vary from congestive cardiac insufficiency to macrocephaly with skull bruit. In children over 3, adolescents and young adults, the most common symptoms are encephalalgia, effort-related syncopes, subarachnoid hemorrhage and retarded development. Diagnosis in adults is rare. Spontaneous thrombosis of these lesions is an uncommon phenomenon and hardly ever found in the literature. This paper reports the case of a female adolescent with spontaneous thrombosis of AMVG and discusses the radiological findings.