Abstract

THE CASE

The story

A young right-handed woman 30 weeks into her third pregnancy presented to the accident and emergency department with a 14-day history of headache; 7 days of progressive left-sided visual blurring, speech difficulties and vomiting; and 2 days of memory impairment, agitation and confusion. The early pregnancy had been uneventful, but at 22 weeks gestation she had been admitted with low back pain and urinary incontinence; MRI of the brain and spine were normal. There was a previous history of asthma, appendicectomy, and a miscarriage 3 years before, with a strong maternal family history of recurrent deep venous thromboses. Her only child had recently contracted chickenpox.

Examination

On initial examination she was poorly co-operative, confused, distressed and agitated. Registration and recall were reduced and she had nominal dysphasia. She was afebrile without meningism. Visual acuity was 6/6 on the right, but reduced to finger counting on the