Associations of Anemia With Outcomes in Patients With Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Meta-Analysis

Conclusions: Anemia on admission was associated with higher mortality and an increased risk of poor outcome in patients with ICH. However, the results were limited by the high heterogeneity of included studies. Prospective, multi-center or population-based, large sample cohort studies are needed in the future. Introduction Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the second most common cause of stroke and a highly lethal disease (1), which still lacks effective therapeutic interventions (2, 3). Although age, baseline ICH volume and neurological status on admission are well-known predictors of outcome of ICH (4), none of these factors could be easily manipulated in clinical practice to improve the outcome. Hemoglobin level, cerebral blood flow and arterial oxygen saturation determine the arterial oxygen content, which is essential for oxygen supply and autoregulation of small arteries in essential organs such as the brain and heart (5). Anemia is prevalent in the intensive care unit and is frequently associated with poor outcome in neurological disease such as ischemic stroke, aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and ICH (6, 7). It was plausible that low hemoglobin level and anemia might adversely affect the outcome of patients with ICH. Although anemia has been correlated with poorer outcome in patients with ischemic stroke and subarachnoid hemorrhage(6, 8–10), there was a lack of evidence concerning the correlation between anemia and outcomes in patients with ...
Source: Frontiers in Neurology - Category: Neurology Source Type: research