Characteristics of Acute Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Patients Receiving Oral Anticoagulants

Objective: We investigated the precise clinical and radiologic characteristics of intracerebral hemorrhage associated with direct oral anticoagulant use. Methods: Patients with acute spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage admitted to our department from September 2014 to November 2017 were retrospectively analyzed. Clinical and neuroradiological characteristics of patients with direct oral anticoagulant-related intracerebral hemorrhage, and effects of prior treatment on the severity at admission and on outcome at discharge were assessed. Results: Of the 301 enrolled patients (103 women; median age 68 years), 261 received no oral anticoagulants (86.8%), 20 received warfarin (6.6%), and 20 received direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) (6.6%). Median initial National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores differed significantly among the groups (P = .0283). Systolic blood pressure (P = .0031) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (P = .0019) were significantly lower in the oral anticoagulant-related intracerebral hemorrhage group than in other groups. Total small vessel disease scores were significantly higher in the oral anticoagulant-related intracerebral hemorrhage group than in the warfarin group (P = .0413). Multivariate analysis revealed that prior oral anticoagulant treatment (odds ratio: 0.21, 95% confidence interval: 0.05-0.96, P = .0445) was independently negatively associated with moderate-to-severe neurological severity (stroke scale score >= 10) after adjusting for intracerebral hemorrhage location and various risk factors. There were significant differences in hematoma volume in the basal ganglia (P = .0366). Conclusions: DOAC-related intracerebral hemorrhage may occur particularly in patients with a high risk of bleeding; however, they had a milder initial neurological severity than those with warfarin-related intracerebral hemorrhage, possibly due to relatively smaller hematoma volume, especially in the basal ganglia.