Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage, initial computed tomography (CT) scan findings, clinical manifestations and possible risk factors

Abstract

Intracerebral hemorrhage is one of the types of stroke in patients with risk factors. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the initial computed tomography (CT) scan findings, clinical manifestations and possible risk factors of patients with intracerebral hemorrhage. This is a cross-sectional study that was performed in 2015-2022 on 900 patients with definite diagnosis of intracerebral hemorrhage. Data of patients were evaluated for patient's age, gender, clinical manifestations, primary radiologic signs in CT scan and possible risks factors for stroke. Lobar hemorrhage was the most common site of involvement (324 patients, 36%) followed by lenticular (putamen) (294 patients, 32.7%) and thalamus (135 patients, 15%). Among patients, 543 patients (60.3%) had hypertension, 81 patients (9%) had histories of anticoagulant. Hemorrhages in putamen were significantly more common in patients with hypertension (P<0.001) and lobar hemorrhages were significantly more common in patients with the use of anticoagulant drugs (P=0.033). The most common presentation of hemorrhagic stroke was decreased consciousness level (428 patients, 47.5%) followed by headache (343 patients, 38.1%), coma (81 patients, 9%) and seizure (48 patients, 5.4%). Evaluation of the relationships between patient's main symptoms and sites of involvement showed that patients with decreased consciousness as their most common symptom had more frequently diagnosed with lobar hemorrhage (54%) and putamen hemorrhage (30.4%) (P<0.001). Hypertension was the most common past medical history that was significantly related to hemorrhage in basal nuclei. Hemorrhages in putamen were common in hypertensive patients and lobar hemorrhages were common in patients with anticoagulant use.

Keywords: CT scan; Stroke; intracerebral hemorrhage; risk factor.