Symptoms:

Symptoms that may occur with an AVM that has not bled include:

• Decreased sensation in any part of the body
• Headache
  • In one area (localized) or general
  • Resembles a migraine headache in some cases
• Muscle weakness, any part of the body
• Seizures
  • Generalized tonic-clonic seizure
  • Partial (focal) seizure
• Vision changes
  • Blurred vision
  • Decreased vision
  • Double vision

Additional symptoms:

• Decreased consciousness
• Dizziness
• Dysfunctional movement
• Ear noise/buzzing
• Eyelid drooping
• Facial paralysis
• Fainting
• Impaired smell
• Speech impairment

There are often no symptoms until the AVM ruptures. This results in sudden bleeding in the brain (hemorrhagic stroke). In more than half of patients with AVM, hemorrhage is the first symptom. Symptoms of AVM hemorrhage are the same as those of other intracerebral hemorrhage.

Signs and tests:

A complete physical examination and neurologic examination are needed, but they may be completely normal.

Tests that may be used to diagnose an AVM include:

• Cerebral angiogram
• Cranial MRI
• Electroencephalogram (EEG)
• Head CT scan
• Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA)