Background and purpose: Many patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) with intraparenchymal extension develop early hematoma expansion, which is not explained by aneurysmal rerupture in half of cases. In patients with primary intracerebral hemorrhage, the computed tomography angiography (CTA) spot sign predicts hematoma expansion and poor outcome. We conducted a 2-center prospective cohort study to evaluate whether CTA spot sign predicts case fatality in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage with intraparenchymal extension.
Methods: We studied consecutive patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage with intraparenchymal extension. Two experienced readers, blinded to clinical data, analyzed CTAs for spot sign presence. We assessed the proportion of patients with the CTA spot sign and tested its association with in-hospital and 90-day case fatality, using univariable and multivariable logistic regression.
Results: In 32 of 236 patients (14%), we found at least 1 spot sign. Acute surgical hematoma evacuation with aneurysm occlusion occurred in 120 patients (51%). The overall in-hospital case fatality rate was 37%. The CTA spot sign was not associated with in-hospital (multivariable odds ratio, 0.51 [95% confidence interval, 0.06-3.26]) or 90-day (multivariable odds ratio, 0.59 [0.21-1.65]) case fatality.
Conclusions: The found frequency of CTA spot signs is lower after aneurysmal than primary intracerebral hemorrhage and is not associated with in-hospital or 90-day case fatality in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage with intraparenchymal extension.
Keywords: CTA spot sign; in-hospital death; intracerebral hemorrhage; subarachnoid hemorrhage.