Clinical and imaging manifestations of intracerebral hemorrhage in brain tumors and metastatic lesions: a comprehensive overview.

Purpose: This observational study aims to provide a detailed clinical and imaging characterization/workup of acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) due to either an underlying metastasis (mICH) or brain tumor (tICH) lesion.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, single-center study, evaluating patients presenting with occult ICH on initial CT imaging, classified as tICH or mICH on follow-up MRI imaging according to the H-Atomic classification. Demographic, clinical and radiological data were reviewed.

Results: We included 116 patients (tICH: 20/116, 17.24%; mICH: 96/116, 82.76%). The most common malignancies causing ICH were lung cancer (27.59%), malignant melanoma (18.10%) and glioblastoma (10.34%). The three most common stroke-like symptoms observed were focal deficit (62/116, 53.45%), dizziness (42/116, 36.21%) and cognitive impairment (27/116, 23.28%). Highest mICH prevalence was seen in the occipital lobe (mICH: 28.13%, tICH: 0.00%; p = 0.004) with tICH more in the corpus callosum (tICH: 10.00%, mICH: 0.00%; p = 0.029). Anticoagulation therapy was only frequent in mICH patients (tICH: 0.00%, mICH: 5.21%; p = 0.586). Hemorrhage (tICH: 12682 mm³, mICH: 5708 mm³, p = 0.020) and edema volumes (tICH: 49389 mm³, mICH: 20972 mm³, p = 0.035) were significantly larger within tICH patients.

Conclusion: More than half of the patients with neoplastic ICH exhibited stroke-like symptoms. Lung cancer was most common in mICH, glioblastoma in tICH. While clinical presentations were similar, significant differences in tumor location and treatments were discernible.