Neurology and Pregnancy provides a comprehensive multidisciplinary guide to best practices for research and practicing neurologists, as well as obstetricians and other specialists caring for women with an acute or chronic neurological disorder. The book encompasses preconception care, genetic counseling, pregnancy in patients with chronic neurological disorders, and acute pregnancy-related neurological complications. Postpartum care and complications, including lactation concerns, are also addressed, as well as the long-term effects of pregnancy and its complications on maternal brain health. Vol 1 summarizes the complex neurophysiological changes in pregnancy from a basic and translational science perspective. This includes neuroimaging, principles of neuro-obstetric critical care, and ethical and medicolegal concerns, describes normal fetal cerebral development and summarizes the management of the most common prenatal neurological diagnoses. Vol 2 focuses on chronic neurological conditions in pregnancy such as epilepsy, migraine, and multiple sclerosis, as well as acute neurological disorders including preeclampsia/ eclampsia, ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke, and CNS infections. Each chapter introduction includes data on epidemiology, when applicable. In discussing management, comments of safety profiles of medications preconceptionally, during pregnancy and lactation are summarized. Each chapter includes 1-2 illustrative cases.

This e-book will review special features of the cerebral circulation and how they contribute to the physiology of the brain. It describes structural and functional properties of the cerebral circulation that are unique to the brain, an organ with high metabolic demands and the need for tight water and ion homeostasis. Autoregulation is pronounced in the brain, with myogenic, metabolic and neurogenic mechanisms contributing to maintain relatively constant blood flow during both increases and decreases in pressure. In addition, unlike peripheral organs where the majority of vascular resistance resides in small arteries and arterioles, large extracranial and intracranial arteries contribute significantly to vascular resistance in the brain. The prominent role of large arteries in cerebrovascular resistance helps maintain blood flow and protect downstream vessels during changes in perfusion pressure. The cerebral endothelium is also unique in that its barrier properties are in some way more like epithelium than endothelium in the periphery. The cerebral endothelium, known as the blood-brain barrier, has specialized tight junctions that do not allow ions to pass freely and has very low hydraulic conductivity and transcellular transport. This special configuration modifies Starling's forces in the brain microcirculation such that ions retained in the vascular lumen oppose water movement due to hydrostatic pressure. Tight water regulation is necessary in the brain because it has limited capacity for expansion within the skull. Increased intracranial pressure due to vasogenic edema can cause severe neurologic complications and death.