Impact of stroke history on the presence of cerebral microbleeds in hemodialysis patients

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are detected on gradient-echo T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Clinically, CMBs are often detected after stroke, including in cases of intracerebral hemorrhage and ischemic cerebrovascular disease. Hemodialysis (HD) patients are widely known to have a high incidence of stroke, and HD patients without stroke history have been reported to have a high prevalence of CMBs. In this study, we investigated whether history of stroke affects the prevalence of CMBs in HD patients. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was performed in 241 HD patients who underwent brain T2*-weighted MRI. We compared the prevalence of CMBs between the patients with and without a history of stroke. Moreover, the relationship between history of stroke and presence of CMBs was examined by multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among these patients, 22 (9.1%) had a history of stroke. CMBs were detected in 70 patients (29.0%). The prevalence of CMBs was significantly higher in patients with a history of stroke compared to those without this history (54.5 vs. 26.5%, p = 0.012). In the multivariable analysis adjusted for background characteristics, history of stroke was a significant and independent factor related to CMBs (OR: 3.24, 95%CI: 1.18–8.89, p = 0.02). DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS: As has been reported for non-dialysis patients, our results showed a high prevalence of CMBs in HD patients with a history of stroke, and indicated that a history of stroke is significantly and independently associated with CMBs in HD patients.