Vascular myelopathy later in this article. However, TIAs can result from emboli in calcific aortic disease and aortic coarctation. Spinal arteriovenous malformations (AVMs, or angiomatous malformations) are congenital (from birth) abnormalities of blood vessels. Arteries that directly communicate with veins bypass the capillary network (which has not yet developed) and thus creates a shunt. AVMs appear as a mass of convoluted, dilated vessels. In regards to the spinal cord, they are usually located in the thoracolumbar region (between the thoracic and lumbar regions, 60% of the time), as opposed to the upper thoracic (20%) and cervical regions (approximately 15%). Cervical malformations arise
Striate arteries They may either rupture, producing an intracerebral hemorrhage that is initially centered in the region they supply, or they become occluded, producing a lacunar infarct in the tissue they supply. The lenticulostriate arteries are "end arteries", meaning that the regions they supply do not have significant collateral blood supply. Occlusion of these vessels therefore leads to stereotyped stroke syndromes. In the case of the lenticulostriate vessels, hemorrhage may remain localized to the putamen and caudate nucleus, may involve neighboring structures such as the internal capsule and other more distant white matter of the hemisphere, or may even rupture into the