is there an unusual incidence of the manifestation of intracranial angiomas in pregnancy risk assessment based on 17733 patients over 10 years from 19791988 134 inpatients mf 8054 were treated because of an intracranial angioma avm the malefemale ratio was 32 in general as well as during the reproductive age 1545 yrs in 6 patients 2027 yrs grav 2para 1 n 3 grav 1para 0 n 3 the avm became symptomatic during pregnancy n 4 2333 gestational week or at birth n 2 in the group of the presently nonpregnant women n 40 47 uncomplicated deliveries had occurred years before we conclude that the available data neither allow us to reject nor to confirm the hypothesis that pregnancy andor delivery influence the manifestation of cerebral avms the reasons for this dilemma of epidemiology are discussed