Neurocritical care
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Review Case Reports
Cardiomyopathy with inverted tako-tsubo pattern in the setting of subarachnoid hemorrhage: a series of four cases.
Severe subarachnoid hemorrhage may be associated with regional wall motion abnormalities (RWMA) in the absence of epicardial coronary occlusion. The RWMA extends beyond the distribution of a single coronary artery and may present in a typical tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy pattern. Other variants have also been recognized, including an inverted tako-tsubo pattern of severe basal hypokinesis that spares the apex. The mechanism of this cardiomyopathy is not well understood but likely involves catecholamine excess. While classic tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy from emotional stress carries a favorable prognosis, cardiac dysfunction from subarachnoid hemorrhage is a marker of overall poor prognosis. ⋯ The typical and inverted patterns may represent a spectrum within the same disease process or distinct clinical entities with dramatically different prognostic implications. Larger studies comparing the two presentations will help elucidate this further.
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Review Case Reports
Intracranial supraclinoid ICA dissection causing cerebral infarction and subsequent subarachnoid hemorrhage.
Intracranial arterial dissection usually leads to cerebral infarction or subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). It is rare to see both complications in one clinical scenario. ⋯ Intracranial ICA dissections are typically associated with either ischemic or hemorrhagic presentation. We report an unusual case of a patient who suffered a SAH a few days after an ischemic stroke from the dissection. This case contradicts the long-held dogma that intracranial dissection can have either an ischemic or a hemorrhagic presentation, but not both.
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Cardiac abnormalities seen in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) are considered to be a neurally mediated process rather than a manifestation of coronary artery disease. In patients with SAH, myocardial injury evidenced by troponin elevation appears to predict short and long-term outcomes independently of other conventional risk. ⋯ The early resuscitation phase in SAH represents the greatest opportunity for impacting clinical outcome and is thus the most promising window of opportunity to demonstrate a benefit when investigating novel therapeutic strategies related to protection and modulation of cardiovascular function. Specific measures, such as the early use of beta-adrenergic antagonists, to prevent these cardiac abnormalities and ameliorate its impact on morbidity and mortality are yet to be established.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Long-term outcomes of post-thrombolytic intracerebral hemorrhage in ischemic stroke patients.
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is an infrequent complication of intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) for the treatment of acute stroke. However, such ICH is an important reason for withdrawal of care because of lack of adequate data regarding long-term patient outcomes. ⋯ Approximately 30 % of patients with post-thrombolytic ICH have favorable outcomes at 1 year which does not support early withdrawal of care. Ascertainment of NIHSS score and worsening of NIHSS score at 7-10 days may be necessary for accurate prognostic stratification.
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Anticoagulation increases the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), yet whether different underlying disease processes are equally affected is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that coagulopathy, measured by admission international normalized ratio (INR), disproportionately increases the risk for lobar hemorrhages. ⋯ Abnormal coagulation occurs disproportionally in lobar versus deep ICH, and is associated with larger ICH volumes and higher mortality. These findings suggest a unique risk interaction between coagulopathy and underlying brain pathology due to cerebral amyloid angiopathy.