Diagnostic Utility of MRI in Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) account for at least 15% of strokes worldwide. There are many possible etiologies for spontaneous (i.e. non-traumatic) ICH or IVH such as longstanding hypertension and cerebral amyloid angiopathy.

Other causes include vascular malformations, intracranial aneurysms, tumors, coagulopathies, use of thrombolytic or antithrombotic drugs, cerebral venous thrombosis, hemorrhagic transformation of an ischemic infarct, illicit drug use, endocarditis, and vasculitis.

Identification of the cause of an ICH or IVH typically relies on clinical evaluation supported by computer tomography (CT) with or without conventional contrast cerebral angiography in selected patients. While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has substantially improved our diagnostic capabilities, the appropriate use of MRI and its effectiveness has not been studied systematically in these patients. Furthermore, it is unclear whether routine MRI in ICH yields clinically relevant data. For this reason routine use or MRI in patients with ICH is highly variable in clinical practice. Furthermore, it is unclear whether the findings detected on MRI will change management decisions regarding further diagnostic testing and therapeutic options above and beyond that which can be achieved by CT and cerebral angiography.

This question has major ramifications for the care of patients with ICH or IVH. If MRI truly can categorize patients into specific diagnostic categories better than CT, this would represent a major paradigm shift in the way that these patients are typically evaluated. On the other hand, because of the added expense of MRI, its general use could result in a substantial increase in the cost of neurological care. These added costs must result in improvements in patient management in order to justify the added financial resources involved.

The overall aim of this project is to prospectively determine whether MRI can improve the conventional neuroradiological evaluation (CT with or without cerebral angiography) of patients with a spontaneous ICH or IVH. The study design will also allow us to identify the added benefit of specific MR sequences and repeat MRI in the chronic stage, thereby allowing us to prospectively determine their value in a consecutive series of patients. This information should have a major impact on the management of these patients by providing data on the diagnostic yield of routine MRI in patients presenting with a wide variety of causes for ICH or IVH. These data will help guide the diagnostic evaluation and the management of brain hemorrhage patients in the future. During this 5-year study, 160 consecutive inpatients presenting with a spontaneous ICH or IVH within 48 hours of symptom onset will be prospectively categorized into specific hemorrhage subtypes based upon the findings on MRI. We will: