Non-Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage in COVID-19: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Subarachnoid Hemorrhage With Multifocal Cerebral Aneurysms in a Patient With Crohn’s Disease and Sjögren's Syndrome: A Case Report and Literature Review

Only a few reports of the association between Crohn's disease (CD) and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) have been documented in the medical literature. Herein, we are presenting a 61-year-old female patient who presented with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). She has a past medical history of primary SS on no active treatment, and CD in remission while on maintenance immunotherapy. She also tested positive for COVID-19. Computed tomography angiography (CTA) brain as well as cerebral angiogram revealed multifocal cerebral aneurysms. Successful coiling was achieved with a cerebral angiogram. This case serves to add to a limited body of reported cases and remind clinicians of the association between SS/CD and cerebral aneurysms. Herein, we review the literature regarding this association and also the effect of immunotherapy and COVID-19 on the progression of cerebral aneurysms.

Detection of subarachnoid haemorrhage with spectrophotometry of cerebrospinal fluid - a comparison of two methods

OBJECTIVES

Spectrophotometric absorption curve analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for oxyhaemoglobin and bilirubin is necessary to accurately diagnose subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) in patients with typical symptoms but with negative findings on X-ray examinations. In this study, we evaluated the performance of two methods for interpreting absorption curves; one method from the United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Service (UK-NEQAS) and the other from the national quality assurance programme in Sweden (Equalis).

METHODS

Consecutive absorbance curves (n=336) were interpreted with two different methods, and their performance was compared to the diagnosis as stated in the patient records.

RESULTS

The UK-NEQAS method displayed equal sensitivity to the Equalis method, but the specificity of the UK-NEQAS method was significantly higher than the Equalis method resulting in fewer false positive results. For UK-NEQAS, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 84.6% and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 99.7% were observed, whereas the Equalis method had a PPV of 27.5% and an NPV of 99.7%.

CONCLUSIONS

The semi-automated method based on the guidelines from UK-NEQAS provides an efficient and correct interpretation of absorbance curves with short turn-around times. We propose using this method for the routine interpretation of CSF spectrophotometric curves.