Outcome Prediction of Patients with Intracerebral Hemorrhage by Measurement of Lesion Volume in the Corticospinal Tract on Computed Tomography

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the potential utility of computed tomography for outcome prediction in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage. METHODS: Patients with putaminal and/or thalamic hemorrhage for whom computed tomography images were acquired in our hospital emergency room soon after onset were retrospectively enrolled. Outcome measurements were obtained at discharge from the convalescent rehabilitation ward of our affiliated hospital. Hemiparesis was evaluated using the total score of the motor component of the Stroke Impairment Assessment Set (SIAS-motor; null to full, 0 to 25), the motor component of the Functional Independence Measure (FIM-motor; null to full, 13 to 91), and the total length of hospital stay. After registration of the computed tomography images to the standard brain, the volumes of the hematoma lesions located in the corticospinal tract were calculated. The correlation between the corticospinal tract lesion volumes and the outcome measurements was assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation test. RESULTS: Thirty patients were entered into the final analytical database. Corticospinal tract lesion volumes ranged from 0.002 to 4.302 ml (median, 1.478). SIAS-motor scores ranged from 0 to 25 (median, 20), FIM-motor scores ranged from 15 to 91 (median, 80.5), and the total length of hospital stay ranged from 31 to 194 days (median, 106.5). All correlation tests were statistically significant (P <0.01). The strongest correlation was for SIAS-motor total (R=–0.710), followed by FIM-motor (R=–0.604) and LOS (R=0.493). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that conventional computed tomography images may be useful for outcome prediction in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage.