Diabetes is an independent risk factor for in-hospital mortality from acute spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.

OBJECTIVE We tested the hypothesis that diabetes is an independent determinant of outcome after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This was a hospital-based prospective study The setting was an acute care 350-bed hospital in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Spontaneous ICH was diagnosed in 229 (11%) of 2,000 consecutive stroke patients included in a prospective stroke registry during a 10-year period. Main outcome measures were frequency of demographic variables, risk factors, clinical events, neuroimaging data, and outcome in ICH patients with and without diabetes. Variables related to vital status at discharge (alive or dead) in the univariate analysis plus age were studied in 4 logistical regression models. RESULTS A total of 35 patients (15.3%) had diabetes. The overall in-hospital mortality rate was 54.3% in the diabetic group and 26.3% in the nondiabetic group (P < 0.001). Previous cerebral infarction, altered consciousness, sensory symptoms, cranial nerve palsy, multiple topography of the hematoma, intraventricular hemorrhage, and infectious complications were significantly more frequent in diabetic patients than in nondiabetic patients. The presence of diabetes was a significant predictive variable in the model based on demographic variables and cardiovascular risk factors (odds ratio 2.98 [95% CI 1.37-6.46]) and in the models based on these variables plus clinical variables (5.76 [2.01-16.51]), neuroimaging variables (5.59 [1.87-16.691), and outcome data (6.10 [2.04-18.291). CONCLUSIONS Diabetes is an independent determinant of death after ICH. ICH in diabetic individuals presents some different clinical features compared with ICH in nondiabetic patients.