Comprehensive review of imaging of intracranial aneurysms and angiographically negative subarachnoid hemorrhage

Abstract

Intracranial aneurysms confer the risk of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH), a potentially devastating condition, though most aneurysms will remain asymptomatic for the lifetime of the patient. Imaging is critical to all stages of patient care for those who harbor an unruptured intracranial aneurysm (UIA), including to establish the diagnosis, to determine therapeutic options, to undertake surveillance in patients who elect not to undergo treatment or whose aneurysm(s) portends such a low risk that treatment is not indicated, and to perform follow-up after treatment. Neuroimaging is equally as important in patients who suffer an SAH. DSA remains the reference standard for imaging of intracranial aneurysms due to its high spatial and temporal resolution. As noninvasive imaging technology, such as CTA and MRA, improves, the diagnostic accuracy of such tests continues to increasingly approximate that of DSA. In cases of angiographically negative SAH, imaging protocols are necessary not only for diagnosis but also to search for an initially occult vascular lesion, such as a thrombosed, ruptured aneurysm that might be detected in a delayed fashion. Given the crucial role of neuroimaging in all aspects of care for patients with UIAs and SAH, it is incumbent on those who care for these patients, including cerebrovascular neurosurgeons, interventional neurologists and neuroradiologists, and diagnostic radiologists and neurointensivists, to understand the role of imaging in this disease and how individual members of the multispecialty team use imaging to ensure best practices to deliver cutting-edge care to these often complex cases. This review expounds on the role of imaging in the management of UIAs and ruptured intracranial aneurysms and in the workup of angiographically negative subarachnoid hemorrhage.