Blood pressure is not associated with haematoma enlargement in acute intracerebral haemorrhage

Background and purpose: We performed an observational study that compared baseline and subsequent blood pressure (BP) measurements and its association with haematoma enlargement (HE) in patients with intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH). Methods: We prospectively studied consecutive patients with supratentorial spontaneous ICH within the first 6 h after the onset of symptoms. HE was defined as an increase ‡33% in the volume of haematoma on the CT obtained 24–48 h after the onset of symptoms as compared with the CT at admission. We recorded systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP) and mean BP (MBP) at admission and at 6, 12, 18 and 24 h after onset; the maximum SBP, DBP and MBP during the study period; the maximum SBP and DBP within intervals; the mean of all BP readings; administration of antihypertensive agents. Results: We studied 60 patients whose mean age was 72.1 ± 11.3 years. HE was observed in 27 (45%) patients. No statistically significant differences were observed in any of the analyses that compared BP parameters between the HE and non-HE groups (two-way ANOVA). Conclusions: In an exploratory analysis, we did not find an association between BP and HE within the first 24 h after an acute ICH.