Risk factors of haemorrhagic transformation for acute ischaemic stroke in Chinese patients receiving intravenous thrombolysis: A meta-analysis

AIM: To determine the risk factors related to hemorrhagic transformation in Chinese patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis. METHODS: Studies published in different languages were retrieved by systematically searching PubMed, EMBASE, Vip, CNKI, and WanFang Data from the establishment of the library to December 31, 2018, as well as manually examining the references of the original articles. The outcome measures of efficacy covered risk factors. Safety evaluation was measured by relative ratio of complications. RESULTS: A total of 36 studies involving 5597 participants were covered in this meta-analysis. The results indicated that age [WMD = 2.44, 95% CI (1.39,3.48)], male [OR = 1.21, 95% CI (1.02, 1.44)], diabetes [OR = 2.05, 95%CI (1.72,2.44)], atrial fibrillation [OR = 2.85, 95%CI (2.40, 3.39)], previous stroke [OR = 1.8, 95%CI (1.33, 2.44)], onset to treatment time (OTT) [WMD = 3.74, 95%CI (2.91, 4.58)], National Institute of Health stroke scale scores (NIHSS) [WMD = 4.17, 95% CI (3.37, 4.97)], infarct size [WMD = 4.11, 95% CI (3.15, 5.37)], ischemic signs of computed tomography (CT) [OR = 3.49, 95%CI (2.47, 4.93)] were associated with increased risk of hemorrhagic transformation after intravenous thrombolysis. CONCLUSION: The systematic review showed that male, age, diabetes, NIHSS, OTT, atrial fibrillation, post stroke, infarct size, and ischemic signs of CT were significantly correlated with hemorrhagic transformation (HT). PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42019127499.