Hemodynamics and Natural History Outcome in Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms: A Prospective Longitudinal Cohort Study

Abstract

There is increasing interest in assessing the role of hemodynamics in aneurysm growth and rupture mechanism. The ability to accurately predict the rupture risk of an aneurysm can help in providing immediate intervention to patients with aneurysms at high rupture risk Also, the small but significant risk associated with the treatment options can be avoided for patients with stable harmless aneurysms. Retrospective studies have been performed in the past to identify indices that differentiate ruptured aneurysms from unruptured aneurysms [1–3]. However, these differences may not necessarily translate to differences between aneurysms that present unruptured but over a period of time (months to years), fork towards growth/rupture and unruptured aneurysms that remain stable. In the present study, the hypothesis that hemodynamic indices of unruptured aneurysms when they first presented are predictive of their longitudinal outcome was tested.