Abstract
Background: Acute convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage (cSAH) is increasingly recognized as a marker of cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Little is known about the risk of subsequent hemorrhage in such CAA presentation, whereas CAA-related lobar intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) is associated with a high risk of recurrence. The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcome among patients with an acute CAA related- cSAH to those with an acute CAA-related lobar ICH. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the risk of subsequent hemorrhage is different between patients with acute cSAH and lobar ICH related to CAA. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical outcomes (death, subsequent transient focal neurological episodes (TFNE), rates of ICH and acute cSAH) of 45 consecutive patients (75 ± 7 years) with an acute cSAH related to probable CAA compared to 70 consecutive patients (78 ± 7 years) with an acute lobar ICH meeting the Boston criteria for probable CAA. Results: cSAH-patients presented essentially with TFNE (84.4% vs 0%; p<0.001) whereas ICH-patients had a persistent neurological deficit (98.6% vs 15.6%; p<0.001). Five patients with lobar ICH died in the first days. Thirty nine cSAH-patients and 60 lobar ICH-patients had available follow-up data. The mean time of follow-up (± SD) was 364 ± 358 days. Mortality did not differ between cSAH-patients and ICH-patients who survived (10.2 % vs 16.7%; p = 0.38). Patients with cSAH had a higher rate of TFNE (48.7 % vs 0 %; p<0.001) and acute cSAH recurrence (20.5 % vs 1.7 %; p = 0.002). In the other hand, 20.5 % of cSAH-patients presented a subsequent ICH, not different from patients with acute ICH (15.0 %; p = 0.45). Conclusions: In the context of CAA, patients with acute cSAH present more clinical recurrences than lobar ICH-patients, due to higher risk of subsequent TFNE and acute cSAH. Although the clinical presentation of cSAH-patients may appear benign, their outcome regarding the risk of incident ICH and mortality, does not seem different from CAA-related lobar ICH survivors.
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