Admission blood glucose levels and early change of neurological grade in poor-grade patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage.

BACKGROUND

The neurological grade of poor-grade subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) often changes soon after the patient is admitted to the hospital. It is important to closely monitor for such changes within a short period of time after admission; however, there are other problems that can occur during this time such as rebleeding. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between admission blood glucose levels (ABGL) and early change of neurological grade after admission in patients with poor-grade SAH.

METHODS

Forty-six patients with poor-grade SAH (Hunt & Kosnik Grade IV or V), who were admitted within 3 hrs after SAH onset, and who did not have haematomas causing mass effect, or a history of diabetes mellitus, were included in the study. Patients were pretreated to control blood pressure and intracranial pressure, and they were monitored for early change of grade after admission. Blood glucose level was measured at the time of admission.

FINDINGS

Spontaneous grade improvement was observed in 9 of 17 Grade IV patients and 9 of 29 Grade V patients. The ABGL of the patients with grade improvement were significantly lower than the ABGL of the patients who did not improve or who got worse. ABGL were lower than 180 mg/dl in 15 of 18 patients who showed grade improvement.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results showed that there was a relationship between ABGL and neurological grade changes which were observed after admission in patients with poor-grade SAH. These results suggest that ABGL might be a useful parameter for making therapeutic decisions.