Article
The moon, the planets and the sun – influence on subarachnoid hemorrhage
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Authors
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Annika Herten
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
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Ramazan Jabbarli
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
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Philipp Dammann
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
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Bernd-Otto Hütter
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
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Oliver M. Müller
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
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Ulrich Sure
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
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Karsten H. Wrede
- Universitätsklinikum Essen der Universität Duisburg-Essen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Essen, Deutschland
| Published: | June 9, 2017 |
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Outline
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Objective: Frequency of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhages (aSAH) has complex fluctuations. This long-term retrospective study analyzes influence of moon phases, planetary conjunctions and transits and solar activity on occurrence of aSAH.
Methods: Dates of SAH events and basic demographic data for all consecutive patients (n = 956) treated in our vascular center for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage between January 2003 and December 2015 (4748 days) were retrieved from our continuously maintained database. Daily fraction of the Moon illuminated at midnight 1 hour east of Greenwich was accessed from the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) and lunar phases were calculated. Data on planetary conjunctions and transits (Mercury, Venus) was also retrieved form the USNO. Daily solar activity data was accessed from the Space Weather Prediction Center of the US National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Influence of moon phases and planetary conjunctions and transits on aSAH frequency was analyzed by Monte Carlo simulations (1,000,000 permutations). Correlation of fraction of the moon illuminated and aSAH occurrence was analyzed by Poisson regression. Influence of solar activity (radioflux F10.7 index, Space Environment Services Center (SESC) sunspot number and sunspot area, solar flares, solar proton and electron flux, planetary A-index) on aSAH frequency was also analyzed using Poisson regression. Statistical analysis was carried out with the STATA software package (Stata/MP 14.2 for Linux 64-bit).
Results: The study group comprised 317 (33.2%) male and 639 (66,8%) female patients (p < 0.001) with an average age of 54,69 years (standard error of the mean 0.44, range 0 – 89). Monte Carlo simulations did neither show influence of the moon phase nor of planetary conjunctions and transits on aSAH frequency. Poisson regression did neither show influence of the fraction of the moon illuminated nor of solar activity on aSAH occurrence. Interestingly, Poisson regression showed week influence of the radioflux (F10.7 index) on aSAH occurrence when analyzing subsamples of the dataset.
Conclusion: Moon phases, planetary conjunctions and transits as well as solar activity did not influence aSAH occurrence in our long-term aSAH dataset. Correlations found in previous studies might be explained by of small sample sizes or short observation periods.
