title: Recognizing the signs and symptoms of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage.
abstract: Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a devastating neurologic condition with a high mortality and long term neurological morbidity in 50% of survivors. In addition, SAH commonly affects young patients causing substantial loss of productive life years and resulting in significant long term healthcare costs. Early recognition of the signs and symptoms of SAH is absolutely critical to earlier intervention, and delays in diagnosis can have devastating consequences. To avoid such delays in SAH diagnosis, the medical provider should recognize its signs and symptoms. Neuroimgaging, cerebrospinal fluid examination and angiography (invasive or non-invasive) facilitate early diagnosis of SAH. The purpose of this review is not to provide an exhaustive critique of the available literature, rather, it is to provide an overview that will better enable a provider to recognize and initiate the workup of patients with SAH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Critical Care, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55902, USA.
authors.forename: S Arthur
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Alejandro A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Rabinstein
authors.forename: Michael W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: David Freeman
mesh_terms: D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015898:Tomography Scanners, X-Ray Computed
keywords: MRI; aneurysm; cerebral angiography; computed tomography; intracerebral hemorrhage; subarachnoid hemorrhage; thunderclap headache