Subarachnoid haemorrhage in first and second degree relatives of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage

Aggregation of subarachnoid haemorrhage has been described in numerous families,1 but whether relativxes of patients are at increased risk is unknown. If they are, they might benefit from screening for unruptured intracranial aneurysms since the outcome of subarachnoid haemorrhage is poor and asymptomatic aneurysms can now be repaired with low morbidity and mortality. We therefore studied the cumulative incidence of subarachnoid haemorrhage among first and second degree relatives of patients with recent haemorrhage. We prospectively collected a series of 163 patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage verified by computed tomography from the University Hospitals of Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam, and for every patient we constructed a pedigree including all first and second degree relatives. All these relatives were interviewed by telephone in a standardised manner; they were asked about episodes of subarachnoid haemorrhage, sudden severe headache, stroke, and sudden death. For deceased relatives a next of kin was interviewed about the cause of …