Clinical characteristics and influencing factors on prognosis of pregnancy complicated with intracerebral hemorrhage

Objective To analyze the clinical features and factors affecting prognosis for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) during pregnancy and postpartum. Methods A study of ICH was performed on 61 women in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University between January 1997 and December 2014, and all cases were diagnosed with cerebral hemorrhage or subarachnoid hemorrhage during pregnancy or six weeks after delivery with CT or MRI after exclusion of ICH due to craniocerebral trauma. The subjects were divided into surgery (n=26) and conservative treatment (n=35) groups according to different ways of treatment; pregnancy associated problems (n=11) and cerebrovascular diseases groups according to the aetiology of ICH; low (n=13) and high score group (n=48) according their Glasgow score at the first visit; and short clinical onset to diagnosis time (O-D time) group (≤24 h, n=33) and long O-D time (>24 h) group (n=28). We compared the maternal clinical features and prognosis between different groups with t, Mann-Whitney U or Chi-square tests. A stratified logistic regression was used to assess the effect of factors affecting the prognosis. Results The average gestational age at the onset of ICH of the 61 cases was (28.8±8.3) weeks (6-40 weeks), the Glasgow score was (11.3±4.8), the median O-D time was 24.0 h, the modified Rankin scale (mRS) was 2.7, and 14 maternal deaths were reported (23.0%). Among the 61 women, three were terminated in early trimester, 12 terminated in second trimester, and the rest 46 delivered in late term among which two fetal deaths, 44 live births, and four neonatal deaths. Thus the perinatal infant death rate was 13.0% (6/46). The difference of maternal clinical features and prognosis between the surgery and conservative treatment group was not significant (all P>0.05). However, comparison between the cerebrovascular disease and pregnancy associated diseases group showed the latter had a lower Glasgow score and Apgar score [12.2(3.0) vs 7.5(12.0), (8.9±1.9) vs (7.2±2.6)], the higher mRS [2.4(2.0) vs 3.9(5.0)] and gestational age [(27.7±8.4) vs (34.9±4.1)], maternal mortality rate [14.0% (7/50) vs 7/11] and perinatal death rate [5.4% (2/37) vs 4/11] (t or χ2=-3.09, -2.34, 1.93, 1.17, 2.12 and 1.78, all P 0.05). Conclusions The prognosis is poor in women with ICH during pregnancy or postnatal period whose Glasgow score was low or O-D time was long, or the ICH occurred due to pre-eclampsia. Antenatal care should be strengthened and early identification and diagnosis might improve the prognosis. Key words: Pregnancy complications; Cerebral hemorrhage; Prognosis