Demographic Risk Factors for Vascular Lesions as Etiology of Intraventricular Hemorrhage in Prospectively Screened Cases

Background: Spontaneous intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality despite critical care and other advances. An important step in clinical management is to confirm/rule out an underlying vascular lesion, which influences further treatment, potential for further bleeding, and prognosis. Our aim is to compare demographic and clinical characteristics between IVH patients with and without an underlying vascular lesion, and among cohorts with different vascular lesions.

Methods: We analyzed prospectively collected data of IVH patients screened for eligibility as part of the Clot Lysis: Evaluation Accelerated Resolution of IVH Phase III (CLEAR III) clinical trial. The trial adopted a structured screening process to systematically exclude patients with an underlying vascular lesion as the etiology of IVH. We collected age, sex, ethnicity, and primary diagnosis on these cases and vascular lesions were categorized prospectively as aneurysm, vascular malformation (arteriovenous malformation, dural arteriovenous fistula, and cavernoma), Moyamoya disease, or other vascular lesion. We excluded cases <18 or >80 years of age. Baseline characteristics were compared between the CLEAR group (IVH screened without vascular lesion) and the group of IVH patients screened and excluded from CLEAR because of an identified vascular lesion. We further analyzed the differential demographic and clinical characteristics among subcohorts with different vascular lesions.

Results: A total of 10,538 consecutive IVH cases were prospectively screened for the trial between 2011 and 2015. Out of these, 496 cases (4.7%) screened negative for underlying vascular lesion, met the inclusion criteria, and were enrolled in the trial (no vascular etiology group); and 1,205 cases (11.4%) were concurrently screened and excluded from the trial because of a demonstrated underlying vascular lesion (vascular etiology group). Cases with vascular lesion were less likely to be >45 years of age (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.20-0.40), African-American (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.18-0.31), or male gender (OR 0.48, 95% CI 0.38-0.60), and more likely to present with primary IVH (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.37-2.51) compared to those with no vascular etiology (p < 0.001). Other demographic factors were associated with specific vascular lesion etiologies. A combination of demographic features increases the association with the absence of vascular lesion, but not with absolute reliability (OR 0.1, 95% CI 0.06-0.17, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: An underlying vascular lesion as etiology of IVH cannot be excluded solely by demographic parameters in any patient. Some form of vascular imaging is necessary in screening patients before contemplating interventions like intraventricular fibrinolysis, where safety may be impacted by the presence of vascular lesion.