Abstract
The concept of cerebrovascular accident in the embryonal and fetal periods is obscure. It may affect neuronal development as an encephaloclastic insult in the later stages of development, although the specific critical period for this is completely unknown. Furthermore, vascular development may depend on the neuronal maturation process if the primary encephalodysplastic lesion occurs early in the development process. Various cases of cerebrovascular accident occurring in the fetal brain are summarized, and the specific nature of the disease is discussed in light of the relation between vascular development and the neuronal maturation process. Cerebrovascular diseases during the fetal period include intraventricular hemorrhage, ischemic lesions due to vascular occlusion occurring in monozygotic twins, various vessel abnormalities, etc. Cerebral dysgenetic malformations, on the other hand, result in a variety of developmental abnormalities of vascular structures. The present study emphasizes that the neuronal maturation process and vascular development may have a major effect upon each other depending upon the stage when the accident occurs in the fetal period. The authors describe this phenomenon in the fetal period as a specific etiopathophysiological entity : "neuro-vascular develop mental interaction".
