Higher serum lactate dehydrogenase level predicts poor outcome of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage after microsurgery

We explored the clinical significance of serum LDH level in aSAH patients after microsurgical clipping in our single institution, to test the hypothesis that higher serum LDH level predicts the outcome of aSAH patients at 3 months. A total of 2054 aSAH patients were collected, and 874 patients treated by microsurgical clipping were enrolled. And the serum LDH level within 24 hours after aSAH were recorded. The median serum LDH level (U/L) in the good outcome group (180.096±50.237) was obviously lower than that in the poor outcome group (227.554±83.002)(p=0.000). The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.702(95% confidence interval [CI], 0.650 - 0.754; p=0.000). The optimal cutoff value for serum LDH level as a predictor for 3-month poor outcome (mRS>2) was determined as 201.5U/L in the ROC curve. Our finding showed that that higher serum LDH level correlated with Hunt & Hess grade, Fisher grade and neurological functional outcome, and predicted the outcome of aSAH at 3 months, which was involved in the related mechanisms of early brain injury and showed its great clinical significance in aSAH patients.