CORRELATION BETWEEN HAEMATOCRIT LEVEL AND THE DURAL SINUS DENSITY: AN EXPERIENCE OF A SINGLE CENTER IN TAIF, SAUDI ARABIA

Background: The increase in the level of haematocrite results in an increase in the x-ray attenuation within the vasculature, which may lead to a considerable variability among patients in the radiodensity during performing a computerized tomography (CT) images within the intracranial vasculature. Objectives:The current study aimed to investigate the correlation between haematocrit levels and CT density of dural sinuses. Subjects and Methods: A single-center study was carried out on 49 subjects who admitted to the emergency department, throughout the period June-December, 2019 who underwent unenhanced head CTs. Patients were imaged using a 128-detector row CT scanner. A complete blood count (CBC) within a 24-hour period, regardless of patient symptoms or signs was performed to all subjected enrolled in the study. Results: Dural sinus density ranged between 40 and 72 Hounsfield unit (HU) with a mean of 55.9 and standard deviation of 8.2 HU. There was a significant positive correlation between dural sinus density and haematocrit values of the patients (r=0.49, p=0.001). Also, there was a significant negative correlation between dural sinus density and patients` age (r=-0.38, p=0.010). Dural sinus density was significantly higher among female than male patients (58.59?8.20 vs. 52.68?7.14, p=0.011). Conclusion: Living in a high altitude arealeads to an increase in hematocritelevel whichmight lead to appearance of CT findings as the patient has false venous sinus thrombosis. Therefore, this should be taken into consideration.