Applying the Ottawa subarachnoid haemorrhage rule on a cohort of emergency department patients with headache

Objective The Ottawa subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) rule suggests that alert patients older than 15 years with a severe nontraumatic headache reaching maximum intensity within 1 h and absence of high-risk variables effectively have a SAH ruled out. We aimed to determine the proportion of emergency department (ED) patients with any headache fulfilling the entry criteria for the Ottawa SAH rule. Patients and methods The Ottawa SAH rule was applied retrospectively in a substudy of a prospective snapshot of 34 EDs in Queensland, Australia, carried out over 4 weeks in September 2014. Patients older than 18 years or more with a nontraumatic headache of any potential cause were included. Clinical data and results of investigations were collected. Results Data were available for 644 (76%) patients. A total of 149 (23.1%, 95% confidence interval: 20.0–26.5%) fulfilled and 495 (76.9%, 95% confidence interval: 73.5–80.0%) did not fulfil the entry criteria. In patients who fulfilled the entry criteria, 30 (

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