Pseudo-subarachnoid hemorrhage

Subtitle:a tricky CT finding with serious medicolegal implications

Introduction: Pseudo-subarachnoid hemorrhage is a radiological term used to describe increased attenuation values on computed tomography within the basal cisterns and subarachnoid spaces, simulating true subarachnoid hemorrhage. Cases: We present two cases of drug users, both showing a pseudo-subarachnoid hemorrhage pattern on computed tomography after a circulatory collapse with subsequent resuscitation. After fatal outcome, both cases underwent forensic autopsy including pathology and toxicological analysis. Discussion: We compared postmortem findings with antemortem imaging, and found that differentiating pseudosubarachnoid hemorrhage from true-subarachnoid hemorrhage can be quite challenging. However, medicolegal consequences are important (i.e. diagnosing a real subarachnoid hemorrhage as a pseudo-subarachnoid hemorrhage, or vice versa) since certain diagnoses may lead to a judicial inquiry, and careless diagnosis may lead to wrongful prosecution.

Publication year:2021

Keywords:A1 Journal article

Accessibility:Closed