Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: A Single Center Clinical and Angiographic Study in Egyptians.

Background: The evaluation of different aspects of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) can effectively improve the outcomes of this fatal disease. Objective: To correlate the clinical presentations of patients with spontaneous SAH with neuroimaging findings, computed brain tomography (CT) and standard digital subtraction angiography (DSA), with special emphasis on nature of SAH and characteristics of the radiographically detected aneurysms. Methods: We reviewed the record of 68 SAH patients in whom the disease was proved by brain CT scan and sometimes lumbar puncture. In all patients, clinical neurological examination and a standard DSA was done. Results : 58.8 percent of all patients were male and about sixty percent of patients were aged 30-60 years .The angiogram showed aneurysm in 82.4% of patients and it was normal in 17.6 after the second angiogram. About 91.1% of the aneurysms located in the anterior circulation while only about 8.9% of aneurysms were located in the posterior circulation. There was a positive correlation between the clinical presentation of the patients at the onset of the SAH measured by Hunt and Hess Scale and their brain CT findings as revealed by Fisher scale. Patients who had aneurismal SAH had a worse clinical presentation than those with non-aneurismal one. Moreover, among patients with aneurismal SAH there was a significant correlation between the size of the aneurysm and the severity of SAH. Conclusion: DSA should be performed in every patient presented by SAH. Severity of SAH presentation was correlated with both CT and DSA findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]