The Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ICH) in the State of Qatar

Abstract

Background: Our study’s aim is to evaluate the rate of ICH among stroke population over 4 years period in Qatar and main risk factors and etiology seen based on the age and ethnicity of the population. Method: Our stroke database is based on prospective data collection of patients presented with acute neurological symptoms and turn to have TIA, ischemic stroke or ICH from 1st December 2013 to 11th May 2017. The etiology of ICH was assumed based on age, risk factors and neuroimaging findings. Result: The rate of ICH is 20.5% (518 ICH /2525 total stroke). Patients with ICH are slightly younger with a mean age of 51.72 ± 13.1 than ones with ischemic stroke (IS) 56.12 ± 13.38. (p=0.68) and more seen in male than female in both ICH and IS. (M/F=5/1). In addition, patient with ICH do worse than ones with IS (3 months mRS>2, 143/302 (47.4%) in ICH versus 678/1896 (35.8%) in IS, (p<0.001). ICH is more common in the South Asian [S.A] 277/518 (53.3%) followed by Far East [FFE] 96/513 (18.5%), than Qatari and Arabic population 51/518 (9.8%) and 69/518 (12%), respectively, (p<0.001). The main risk factor for ICH is hypertension (HTN) 330/518 (64%) followed by diabetes mellitus (DM) 135/518 (26.3%). The main predictors of ICH are the FFE ethnicity (OR: 2.297, 95% CI:1.77-2.97, p<0.001), HTN (OR:1.85 CI:1.46-2.36, p<0.001, NIHSS (OR:1.15 CI:1.13-1.17, p: 0.00) and Age (OR:0.9, CI:0.96-0.98, p<0.001). Conclusion: The rate of ICH in Qatar is comparable to the rest of the world. However, ICH in Qatar is more seen in young and south Asian population and have worse outcome than ischemic stroke ones. This could be explained by the unique multiple ethnicities’ population in Qatar.