2019 Medical Student Anesthesia Research Fellowship Summer Program

Patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage have frequent, intense headaches following aneurysm rupture. The frequency and severity of headache differs among patients, independent of location or severity of subarachnoid hemorrhage. Headache severity has been linked to the development of cerebral vasospasm. Haptoglobin, a naturally-occurring protein, is essential for free hemoglobin uptake and macrophage-based metabolism. In humans, there are three different haptoglobin phenotypes, each with a different and significant effect on vasospasm risk. We, therefore, hypothesize that haptoglobin phenotype is an important predictor of headache intensity. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate previously collected blood samples in patients with aSAH to evaluate haptoglobin phenotype using a commercially available ELISA test and to compare the haptoglobin phenotype with headache severity.