Leukoaraiosis is an independent predictor of intracranial hemorrhage in patients with atrial fibrillation

We evaluated the predictive value of several clinical, radiological and laboratory parameters on the risk of predict intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We conducted a case-control study on a consecutive hospital based series of patients with AF and ICH. A random sample of subjects with AF without ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke was selected from the same hospital in the same period to perform as the control group, with a ratio of two controls per case. All patients underwent the same evaluation protocol. Patients without neuroimaging exams were excluded. During the study period we identified 37 subjects with AF and ICH. 74 subjects without stroke events were randomly chosen among subjects with AF. Among cases 56.8% were female; mean age was 83.1 years. Patients with ICH were more often on anticoagulant therapy (75.7%), compared with controls (45.9%; p = 0.0002). On CT scans, cases had a greater severity of leukoaraiosis at the Blennow scale (p < 0.0001) and a higher frequency of lacunar infarcts (p = 0.006). No significant association was found between MRI parameters or the HAS-BLED score and the occurrence of ICH. CT scan is more useful than MRI and HAS-BLED score to predict ICH in patients with AF on antithrombotic therapy.