Background: Multiple cerebral aneurysms are encountered in approximately 15% to 35% of patients harboring unruptured cerebral aneurysms. It would be of clinical value to determine which of them is most likely to rupture.
Objective: To characterize features of the ruptured aneurysm relative to other concomitant fellow aneurysms in patients with multiple cerebral aneurysms.
Methods: From a total of 5720 patients who were prospectively registered in the Unruptured Cerebral Aneurysm Study in Japan, a subgroup of patients with multiple cerebral aneurysms who developed subarachnoid hemorrhage was extracted for this post hoc analysis. Intrapatient comparisons of each aneurysm were carried out using aneurysm-specific factors such as size, location, and shape to identify predictors of rupture among the fellow aneurysms in a patient with multiple cerebral aneurysms.
Results: Twenty-five patients with 62 aneurysms were identified from the total cohort of 5720 patients. With the distinctiveness in size, which means the aneurysm was the single largest among the multiple aneurysms, the ruptured aneurysm in each case was discriminated from the other coexisting aneurysms with a sensitivity of 0.76 and specificity of 0.86.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that the largest aneurysm is likely to rupture among coexisting aneurysms in a patient with multiple cerebral aneurysms.