Severity of acute intracerebral haemorrhage, elderly age and atrial fibrillation: independent predictors of poor outcome at three months.

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Prognostic risk factors of haemorrhagic stroke are not yet fully identified. This study investigated clinical factors leading to poor outcome at three months in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) in order to better understand the role of clinical features in prognostic evaluation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study on patients having ICH admitted to two Italian hospitals (the Stroke Units at "Ospedale Santa Maria della Misericordia", Perugia and "Ospedale C. Poma", Mantua) between January 1, 2006 and June 30, 2010. RESULTS: A total of 470 consecutive ICH patients (mean age 73.89±13.02 years) were included and of these, 241 (51.1%) were males. At three months, 293 (62.3%) patients had poor outcome including 133 (27.6%) deaths. The resulting significant predictors of poor outcome from univariate analysis included: age, NIH Stroke Scale Score (NIHSSS) at admission, hyperglycaemia and the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF). These variables were confirmed in logistic regression analyses as being independent predictors of disability: age (OR 1.04 95% CI, 1.02-1.07, p=0.0001), AF (OR 3.18 95% CI, 1.12-9.05 p=0.03) and NIHSSS (OR 1.38 95% CI, 1.28-1.48, p=0.0001), while elderly age (OR 1.10 95% CI, 1.06-1.14, p≤0.0001) and high NIHSSS (OR 1.25 95% CI, 1.19-1.31, p≤0.0001) resulted being independent predictors of mortality. CONCLUSIONS: This study found that severity of ICH, elderly age and AF were independent predictors of poor outcome in ICH patients at three months. Thereby, this highlights the importance of understanding the roles of clinical features in ICH prognostic evaluation.