Intracerebral hemorrhage.

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a common cause of stroke, accounting for between 5 and 10% of all strokes 1 , 2 , 3 . In a consecutive series of 938 stroke patients enrolled into the NINCDS Stroke Data Bank, primary ICH accounted for 10.7% of the cases 4 . The age-adjusted annual incidence rates for primary intracerebral hemorrhage range from 11 to 31 per 100,000 population in predominantly Caucasian population based-studies with a high rate of CT scanning 5 . The risk of intracerebral hemorrhage in blacks is 1.4 times the risk in whites 6 . The most common risk factors in the 403 black patients with ICH were pre-existing hypertension (77%), alcohol use (40%), and smoking (30%). Among the 91 non-hypertensive patients, 21 (23%) were diagnosed with hypertension after onset. Compared with women, men had a younger age of onset (54 versus 60 years; p < .001) and a higher frequency of alcohol use (54% versus 22%; p < .001) and smoking (39% versus 17%; p < .001). ICH secondary to hypertension (n = 311) and of undetermined etiology (n = 73) were the most common subtypes in blacks. Patients aged 65 years and older (compared with those aged 15 to 44 years; p = .001) and women (compared with men; p = .02) were more likely to be dependent at discharge11. ICH remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in this population.