Contrast Extravasation on Computed Tomography Angiography Imitating a Basilar Artery Trunk Aneurysm in Subsequent Conventional Angiogram-Negative Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Report of Two Cases with Different Clinical Courses

Article information

J Cerebrovasc Endovasc Neurosurg. 2015;17(4):324-330

Publication date (electronic) : 2015 December 31

doi : https://doi.org/10.7461/jcen.2015.17.4.324

Won Ho Cho, Hyuk Jin Choi, Kyoung Hyup Nam, Jae Il Lee

Department of Neurosurgery, Medical Research Institute, Pusan National University College of Medicine and Hospital, Busan, Korea.

Correspondence to Jae Il Lee. Department of Neurosurgery, Pusan National University Hospital, 179 Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 49241, Korea. Tel: 82-51-240-7935, Fax: 82-51-244-0282, medifirst@pusan.ac.kr

Received 2014 June 18; Revised 2014 August 12; Accepted 2014 December 31.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Nontraumatic subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is caused by rupture of a cerebral aneurysm in 80-90% of patients.4) Unfortunately, aneurysmal SAH has a high mortality rate of 45%.1) Therefore, immediate diagnosis and treatment are very important in prevention of catastrophic deterioration.

Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) remains the gold standard for the main technique for diagnosis of the intracranial aneurysms.4)5)7) Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is a rapid, less invasive modality for patients with intracranial aneurysm and useful for evaluation of patients with aneurysmal SAH. Therefore, CTA is more often used in the initial evaluation of SAH.4)7)10)11)14)

However, in some patients with a nontraumatic SAH, no aneurysms are found on the initial DSA.3)9)11) Contrast extravasation of a ruptured intracranial aneurysm during CTA is rare, but is becoming more common, with increasing use of CTA for various cerebral vascular diseases and increasing resolution of CTA. We report on two similar cases, but with different clinical course of contrast extravasation from the distal basilar artery (BA) during CTA but negative findings of DSA.

CASE REPORT

Case 1

A 66-year-old man was admitted to our hospital after sudden loss of consciousness. He had suffered from a severe headache for 2 hours before his admission. He had a five-year history of taking medication for angina. On admission, he had a stuporous mental status. A pre-enhanced cranial CT showed acute diffuse SAH in the basal cistern (Fig. 1A). The 3-dimensional CTA showed a saccular lesion arising from the upper basilar artery and projecting anteriorly (Fig. 1B). DSA performed one hour and a half later and did not show any vascular abnormality (Fig. 1C). A repeat DSA, performed on postbleed day 10, also showed no vascular abnormality. The patient was treated conservatively and discharged after 30 days without any neurologic deficit. On follow-up at three months, the patient had no neurologic deficit, and follow up DSA also confirmed no vascular abnormality.

Fig. 1

Case 1. (A) Noncontrast computed tomography (CT) scan on admission shows diffuse subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in the prepontine cistern and both sylvian fissures. (B) 3-dimensional computed tomography angiography (CTA) image demonstrates an enhancing abnormal vascularity (arrow). (C) Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) of the basilar artery acquired in the anteroposterior (left) and lateral (right) views fail to detect the previously seen basilar abnormal structure.

Case 2

A 55-year-old woman with a medical history of chronic viral hepatitis presented to our clinic after sudden onset of headache with vomiting. We did not find any neurologic deficit and her mentality was drowsy. Her CT scan showed a diffuse SAH and mild hydrocephalus (Fig. 2A). CTA confirmed an upper basilar abnormality (Fig. 2B, C and D). Cerebral angiography obtained two hours later failed to disclose a vascular abnormality (Fig. 2E). The patient received an external ventricular drain (EVD) for symptomatic hydrocephalus on posthemorrhage day 2. The patient's clinical condition improved and her level of consciousness improved to alert immediate after EVD. On the second day after EVD, her mentality suddenly deteriorated to semicoma. Immediate CT scan showed an increased amount of SAH, which suggested rebleeding. A repeat CTA after rebleeding did not show an abnormal vascular lesion. However, cerebral angiography at the same time confirmed a small cylinder like contrast stagnation from the upper basilar artery at late arterial phase, indicating pseudoaneurysm formation (Fig. 3). We inserted two Solitaire stents (4 × 20 mm, ev3, Irvine, CA, USA) for flow diversion and anticipating thrombus formation of the pseudoaneurysm. The patient's clinical course was uneventful, however, one-month follow up CTA still showed a saccular lesion from the upper basilar artery. Therefore, we decided to perform DSA and intervention. DSA still showed contrast stagnation at late arterial phase on the upper basilar artery and superselective microcatheter angiography confirmed a pseudoaneurysm arising from a small perforating artery of the superior cerebellar artery (SCA) (Fig. 4). Due to concern about cerebellar infarction, we could not sacrifice the SCA. To facilitate thrombus formation of the pseudoaneurysm, we performed repeated temporary balloon occlusion using a Sceptor XC balloon (4 × 10 mm, Microvention, Tustin, CA, USA) and achieved decreased contrast inflow to the pseudoaneurysm (Fig. 5). On follow-up at 11 months, the patient had no neurologic deficit, and she was able to live independently. Follow up DSA performed 11 months after hemorrhage confirmed no contrast stagnation and abnormal vascular lesion (Fig. 6).

Fig. 2

Case 2. (A) Initial noncontrast CT scan reveals diffuse subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in the basal, prepontine, perimesencephalic cistern and both sylvian fissures. (B) Computed tomography angiography (CTA) axial and (C) Sagittal reformatted images showing an enhanced saccular structure with surrounding blood clot on the posterior surface of the basilar artery (arrow). (D) 3-D CTA image demonstrating a cylinder-shape, enhancing abnormal structure (arrow). (E) Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) of the basilar artery acquired 2 hours later from initial CT scan in the anteroposterior (left) and lateral (right) views fail to detect the previously seen basilar abnormal structure.

Fig. 3

Case 2. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) of the basilar artery acquired 3 days after bleeding event, in the oblique view demonstrate the cylinder-shape contrast stagnation in the upper basilar trunk at late arterial phase (arrow).

Fig. 4

Case 2. Follow up digital subtraction angiography (DSA) acquired 28 days after double stenting. Superselective microcatheter angiography of left superior cerebellar artery confirms a pseudoaneurysm arising from small superior cerebellar artery (SCA) perforating artery (arrow).

Fig. 5

Case 2. Native image of temporary balloon occlusion within the double stents. White arrow shows balloon inflation to achieve decreasing of inflow into the pseudoaneurysm.

Fig. 6

Case 2. Follow up digital subtraction angiography (DSA) done 11 months after hemorrhage confirmed no contrast stagnation or abnormal vascular lesion with patent stented basilar artery and superior cerebellar artery (SCA)s.

DISCUSSION

In the current cases, we report on two patients with contrast extravasation from the basilar artery seen on CTA, but negative findings with immediate subsequent cerebral angiography. Incidence of patients with SAH of unknown etiology was approximately 10 to 30%.3)5)9)12) The precise cause of angiogram-negative SAH is unclear. However, patients with angiogram-negative SAH have a more favorable prognosis and lower rebleeding rate than those with other distributions of aneurysmal SAH.3)9)11)12)

DSA has been the gold standard method for identification and diagnosis of intracranial aneurysms. However, DSA has some weakness of being very invasive and takes time to performed. The risk of complications has been reported as 0.9% to 2.3% with permanent deficit in 0.3%4) and 0.6% of cases occurring in the non-severe neurologic complications, include formation of hematoma, peripheral thromboembolic events, transient hypotension, arteriovenous fistulas, or infection.2)4)

Recently, CTA is useful for detection of intracranial aneurysms because it is less invasive and the procedure is easier to perform than DSA. Because contrast media for CTA is injected intravenously, it is less invasive than arterial injections required for DSA.7) Therefore, CTA is now used as the diagnostic method of first choice for detection of aneurismal SAH, vascular malformations, stenotic vessel disease, vasospasm, traumatic vessel disease, and for development of an occupational treatment plan.4)10)14) Sensitivity of CTA for detection of intracranial aneurysms between 83.6% and 92.7% has been reported, and the specificity is between 77.2% and 98.9%.4) Due to the increased usefulness, sensitivity and specificity for detection of intracranial aneurysms, use of CTA has recently become more frequent. However, CTA has still not replaced DSA as the standard method for detection of intracranial aneurysms. The disadvantages of CTA were difficulty in distinguishing small perforating arteries with a diameter less than 1 mm, difficulty in discriminating a infundibular dilatation of the arterial origin from an aneurysm, artifact of the adjacent vessel, display of venous systems imitating aneurysms, and extravasated blood such as hemorrhage surrounding the aneurysm imitating vascular structures.

Almost all extravasation occurs from ruptured aneurysms but has also been reported in association with other rare situations such as microangioma, infarction with SAH due to obliteration of a perforating artery or increase in arterial pressure after the injection of contrast media.8)10) Another potentiality of extravasation is very small sized true aneurysmal SAH that is not large enough to be recognized. Extravasation on CTA has been reported previously, such as the "cap sign", "corkscrew sign", "puddling" and the "spot sign". The "cap sign" and the "corkscrew sign" are some kind pattern of extravasation. The "puddling" means multiple areas of contrast media on CTA and the "spot sign" is enhancing foci within a hematoma mass associated with hematoma growth and poor prognosis.7)13)14) Nevertheless, sometimes DSA did not reveal a lesion that was initially detected on the CTA. Failure to detect an aneurysmal rupture by DSA that was detected on the initial CTA has been ascribed to a result of vasospasm, dissecting aneurysm, spontaneous thrombosis of the aneurysm, microaneurysm, or error of interpretation.5)11) Aneurysms detected on CTA that do not present on initial DSA can become visible on repeat DSA. Some authors have previously reported discovery rates of repeat DSA of occult aneurysms overlooked on the initial DSA of 2 and 36%.5)6)11)

In the second case, we found a small cylinder like vascular abnormality, which was confirmed by repeated DSA after rebleeding. The proposed mechanism of this case could be as follows. First bleeding was due to rupture of a small perforating vessel arising from the superior cerebellar artery and then spontaneous thrombosis occurred. Therefore, we could not detect vascular abnormality on DSA despite detection of a saccular lesion on initial CTA. Subsequent rebleeding into the hematoma could cause make pseudoaneurysm formation. Therefore we were able to detect contrast stagnation on repeated DSA. Flow diversion through double stents and temporary balloon occlusion could facilitate thrombosis within the pseudoaneurym. Finally, we could achieve complete occlusion of the pseudoaneurysm arising from the SCA.

CONCLUSION

We reported on extremely rare cases of two patients who showed nonaneurysmal, angiogram-negative SAH in which supposed contrast extravasation on initial CTA mimicked a basilar artery trunk aneurysm. Based on our experience, if we encounter a patient with extravasation on CTA with negative DSA findings, repeated DSA is mandatory and superselective microangiography could reduce false-negative finding and improve understanding of pathophysiology.

Article information Continued