J Korean Radiol Soc.  1994 Mar;30(3):401-404.

CT Findings of Spontaneous Subarachnoid Hemorrhage of Unknown Cause

• Yang IK
• Shinn KS
• Ro HJ
• Chung MH
• Choi KH
• Lee HJ
• Park SM
• Kim TG

Abstract

PURPOSE
Spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage(S-SAH) is a relatively rare disease with good clinical course and prognosis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the cisternal blood distribution on CT in patient with S-SAH.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Out of 406 patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage on brain CT scan, 11 patients confirmed to be S-SAH by angiography and clinical follow-up were examined. We analysed the CT findings of these 11 cases retrospectively.
RESULTS
Five patients had only perimesencephalic distribution of hemorrhage:the prepontine, the interped- uncular, and the suprasellar cisterns were involved in 4 cases each, the basal sylvian cistern in 3 cases, and the ambient cistern in 2 cases. The quadrigeminal and a portion of the lateral sylvians were also involved in 1 case each. Six patients revealed cisternal hemorrhage extending beyond the perimesencephalic cistern into the ventricles, cortical sulci, and lateral sylvian fissure. Intraventricular hemorrhage was noted in 3 cases of these 6 patients.
CONCLUSION
Our study suggests that uncomplicated clinical course and normal anglographic finding are more important than CT distribution of cisternal hemorrhage in diagnosing S-SAH.

MeSH Terms

Angiography
Brain
Follow-Up Studies
Hemorrhage
Humans
Prognosis
Rare Diseases
Retrospective Studies
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed