Aggressive blood pressure reduction is not associated with decreased perfusion in leukoaraiosis regions in acute intracerebral hemorrhage patients

Leukoaraiosis regions may be more vulnerable to decreases in cerebral perfusion. We aimed to assess perfusion in leukoaraiosis regions in acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients. We tested the hypothesis that aggressive acute BP reduction in ICH patients is associated with hypoperfusion in areas of leukoaraiosis. In the ICH Acutely Decreasing Arterial Pressure Trial (ICH ADAPT), patients with ICH <24 hours duration were randomized to two systolic BP (SBP) target groups (<150 mmHg vs. <180 mmHg). Computed tomography perfusion (CTP) imaging was performed 2h post-randomization. Leukoaraiosis tissue volumes were planimetrically measured using semi-automated threshold techniques on the acute non-contrast CT. CTP source leukoaraiosis region-of-interest object maps were co-registered with CTP post-processed maps to assess cerebral perfusion in these areas. Seventy-one patients were included with a mean age of 69±11.4 years, 52 of whom had leukoaraiosis. The mean relative Tmax (rTmax) of leukoaraiotic tissue (2.3±2s) was prolonged compared to that of normal appearing white matter in patients without leukoaraiosis (1.1±1.2s, p = 0.04). In the 52 patients with leukoaraiosis, SBP in the aggressive treatment group (145±20.4 mmHg, n = 27) was significantly lower than that in the conservative group (159.9±13.1 mmHg, n = 25, p = 0.001) at the time of CTP. Despite this SBP difference, mean leukoaraiosis rTmax was similar in the two treatment groups (2.6±2.3 vs. 1.8±1.6 seconds, p = 0.3). Cerebral perfusion in tissue affected by leukoaraiosis is hypoperfused in acute ICH patients. Aggressive BP reduction does not appear to acutely aggravate cerebral hypoperfusion.