Sneddon’s syndrome: 15 cases studied with cerebral angiography

Sneddon’s syndrome is rare and defined by the presence of ischaemic strokes associated with livedo reticularis. This paper reports a retrospective study of 13 women and 2 men with mean age 37.93 +/– 9.77 years. All patients presented with one or more cerebral infarcts. Six patients had dementia. MRI showed several cortical infarcts involving both grey and white matter. All patients had cerebral angiography showing distal arteriopathy in 12, occlusion of the right internal carotid artery in 1 and normal images in 2. One patient had antiphospholipid antibodies. Of note, echocardiography was performed in 14 patients and demonstrated a valvulopathy in 10.

Ten patients were treated with antiplatelet agents and 5 with anticoagulants. The course was favourable in 8 but unchanged in 3. Four had several recurrent infarcts, one when anticoagulants were discontinued, in one taking an antiplatelet agent and in two without treatment.

35 references.