Poor intensive stroke care is associated with short-term death after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage

Objectives: The case fatality from spontaneous ICH (SICH) remains high. The quality and intensity of early treatment is one of the determinants of the outcome. We aimed to study the association of early intensive care, using the Intracerebral Hemorrhage-Specific Intensity of Care Quality Metrics (IHSICQM) with the 30-day in-hospital mortality in Algarve, Portugal. Patients and Methods: analysis of prospective collected data of 157 consecutive SICH patients (2014-2016). Logistic regression was performed to assess the role of IHSICQM on the 30-day in-hospital mortality controlling for the most common clinical and radiological predictors of death. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was developed to evaluate the prediction accuracy of the IHSICQM score (C-statistics). Results: forty-five (29 %) patients died. The group of deceased patients had lower intensity of care (lower IHSICQM score) and higher proportion of poor prognosis associated factors (pre-ICH functional dependency, intraventricular dissection/glycaemia). On the multivariate analysis, higher IHSICQM was associated with reduction of the odds of death, 0.27 (0.14-0.50) per each increasing point. The ROC curve showed a high discriminating ability of isolated IHSICQM in predicting the 30-day mortality (AUC = 0,95; 95 % CI = [0,86; 0,95]). Conclusion: the early intensity of quality of care independently predicts the 30-day in-hospital mortality. Quantification of the intensity of SICH is a valid tool to persuade improvement of SICH care, as well to help comparison of performances within and between hospitals.