Abstract
Background
Severe, abrupt onset headache raises concern for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage
(SAH). The current standard work-up is brain CT scan followed by LP if the CT is non-diagnostic
in patients with a normal neurological exam. Some have suggested that angiography
is also indicated in this common clinical situation. Is evaluation with brain CT and
LP for thunderclap headache to rule out SAH sufficient and is angiography needed?
Methods
We systematically searched for studies that followed neurologically-intact patients
with thunderclap headache and normal CT and LP for at least 1 year. The primary outcome
was SAH. We estimated the proportion of patients who developed SAH and the one-sided
upper 95% confidence bound.
Results
Seven studies including 813 patients were identified. None of the patients developed
SAH during follow-up (pooled proportion=0, upper 95% confidence bound=0.004).
Conclusion
Although our methods have important limitations, we believe that this analysis will
give clinicians better tools to decide whether or not to pursue further work-up with
angiography in patients with thunderclap headache and normal neurological exam, CT,
and LP.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
September 16,
2008
Received:
July 4,
2008
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
