Efficacy of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and clinical predicting indexes on differentiating subarachnoid hemorrhage from acute headache patients at emergency department.
- Author:
Kyunghoon KIM
1
;
Sang O PARK
;
Jong Won KIM
;
Kyeong Ryong LEE
;
Dae Young HONG
;
Kwang Je BAEK
;
Sin Young KIM
;
Jin Yong KIM
Author Information
1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Konkuk University Medical Center, Konkuk University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords:
Subarachnoid hemorrhage;
Headache;
Differential diagnosis
- MeSH:
Adult;
Area Under Curve;
Blood Glucose;
Blood Pressure;
Diagnosis, Differential;
Emergencies*;
Emergency Service, Hospital*;
Hand;
Headache Disorders, Primary;
Headache*;
Humans;
Learning;
Neck;
Neck Pain;
Potassium;
Retrospective Studies;
Sensitivity and Specificity;
Subarachnoid Hemorrhage*;
Unconsciousness
- From:Journal of the Korean Society of Emergency Medicine
2018;29(4):371-379
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated the clinical usefulness of the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), Ottawa subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) rule and EMERALD (Emergency Medicine, Registry Analysis, Learning and Diagnosis) SAH rule for predicting SAH in patients with acute headache. METHODS: This clinical retrospective study was conducted at an urban emergency department between January 2008 and December 2017. Alert, neurologically intact adult patients with acute headache were included. All data were drawn from electrical medical charts. The Ottawa SAH rule (positive if any of age ≥40, neck pain, loss of consciousness, onset during exertion, thunderclap headache, and neck stiffness), EMERALD SAH rule (positive if any of systolic blood pressure >150 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure >90 mmHg, serum glucose >115 mg/dL, or serum potassium < 3.9 mEq/L) and NLR were assessed. The sensitivity and specificity of these tools for detecting or ruling out SAH was calculated. RESULTS: Among the 1,230 patients enrolled in this study, 299 (24.3%) were diagnosed with SAH. To predict SAH, the Ottawa SAH rule offered 100% sensitivity but 31.6% specificity. Applying the EMERALD SAH rule to patients positive for the Ottawa SAH rule led to 92.6% sensitivity and 48.0% specificity. As the NLR alone showed less efficacy with the area under curve of 0.696 by receiver operating analysis, NLR (>2.1) was added to the last step to have achieve 99.0% sensitivity and 56.7% specificity. CONCLUSION: The stepwise application of the Ottawa, EMERALD SAH rule, and NLR increased the specificity compared to each application. On the other hand, further studies will be needed to increase the sensitivity.
