Quality of Life After Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Subjects and Methods

Results

Baseline characteristics of the patients are summarized in Table 1. A total of 841 patients with ICH were enrolled and randomized, and 821 received study drug. A total of 657 patients survived until 3 months after stroke onset, and 621 (95%) completed the EuroQoL and were included in the present analysis. Among the 621 completers, 593 (90% of survivors) completed the VAS score and 621 (100%) completed the 5 subscales to estimate the utility score. Mean age was 64 years (range, 23 to 97 years); 60% were male; and 68% were white, 21% were Asian, and 9% were black. The 36 survivors who failed to complete the EuroQOL were more often male and nonwhite than those who were included in the analysis (Table 1). As previously reported, the main outcome measure of the trial, the proportion of patients who were dead or severely disabled according to the mRS at 90 days, was not significantly different among the 3 treatment groups in the trial.¹⁴ Similarly, the distribution of outcomes on the mRS and median Barthel Index scores were similar among the 3 treatment groups in the trial.

At Day 90±7 after ICH onset, the mean VAS score was 62.2 (SD ±25) and the mean utility score was 0.62 (SD ±0.3). The distribution of utility scores revealed 2 peaks, one above and one below a score of 0.5 (Figure 1). For this reason, a utility score of 0.5 was used as the threshold to define poor HRQOL in subsequent univariate and multivariate analyses. Two percent had a utility score <0 (HRQOL worse than death), 15% a utility score <0.2, 32% a utility score <0.5, and 87% a score <0.87 (average score in general population).¹⁸ In the other end of the scale, 13% had a utility score of 1 (perfect HRQOL).

Patients with a utility score <0.5 were significantly older; had worse NIHSS and Glasgow Coma Scale scores at baseline, higher baseline systolic blood pressure, larger baseline ICH, edema, and total lesion volumes; more often experienced an increase in neurological deficit during first 72 hours after ICH onset; more frequently developed infections; or underwent edema management or mechanical ventilation (Table 2). The relationship between HRQOL and disability at Day 90 was particularly pronounced. The mean VAS score decreased from 86.9 (SD 14.8) at mRS level 0 to 30.4 (SD 19.0) at mRS level 5, whereas the mean utility score decreased from 0.9 (SD 0.1) at mRS 0 to 0.1 (SD 0.1) at mRS 5 (Figure 2). The correlation coefficient between level of functional outcome on the mRS and VAS (r=−0.53) and utility scores (r=−0.76) reported at Day 90 were all statistically significant (P<0.0001).

When adjusting for potentially relevant predictors of poor HRQOL, the multivariate analysis identified advanced age, higher baseline NIHSS score, higher baseline systolic blood pressure, higher baseline ICH volume, deep hematoma location, and neuroworsening as independent significant predictors of poor HRQOL (Table 3). All variables were consistently identified in the 5 models as the blocks in which they were assigned were added to the multivariate model. Advanced age was a significant predictor in all models. The final model explained a very large proportion of the variation in utility score (C-statistic=0.77).

Discussion

This study provides the first large, global assessment of HRQOL after ICH and its clinical predictors using the EuroQoL, which is a well-validated and widely used HRQOL instrument in clinical practice. Patients in our trial were recruited in 22 countries across Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and South America. We found the overall quality of life observed after ICH to be substantially lower than that observed in the general population.^19,20 Approximately one third of ICH survivors had a utility score <0.5, 16% a utility score <0.2, and 2% a utility score worse than death. We found baseline demographic and clinical characteristics (age, initial neurological deficit, systolic blood pressure, ICH volume, and deep ICH) and neuroworsening during the acute phase of treatment to all be independent predictors of poor HRQOL.

The association of poor quality of life with deep as opposed to lobar ICH is novel. This may reflect the ability of basal ganglia hemorrhages to cause more severe motor deficits or to undercut and impair multiple cortical functions such as language, sensation, and spatial perception. Alternately, this observation may reflect the fact that lobar hemorrhage is more often related to amyloid angiopathy as opposed to hypertensive small vessel disease, which may in some way be associated with more severe local tissue injury.

The association of elevated admission blood pressure with poor quality of life is also novel. Severe hypertension is common during the acute phase of stroke as part of a generalized stress response, and increased blood pressure on admission has been linked to an increased risk of death and disability after ICH.^21–24 To our knowledge, however, hypertension has not previously been associated with poor quality of life among ICH survivors. The association between elevated blood pressure and poor outcome after ICH suggests that uncontrolled hypertension may exacerbate ICH-related tissue injury, leading to more severe deficits and worse outcome. Alternately, this association may be noncausal. At the very least, our findings suggest that quality of life should be used as an end point for studies of blood pressure management in ICH.

The association of early neuroworsening with poor quality of life was somewhat surprising given the fact that the severity of the acute neurological deficit was accounted for in the model. Neurological deterioration after ICH is most often attributed to ICH growth in the acute phase (<6 hours) and evolving perihematomal tissue injury, edema, and mass effect thereafter.²⁵ It would seem most likely that neuroworsening results in worse quality of life by producing a more severe neurological deficit. This finding supports the notion that early in-hospital worsening, regardless of the specific mechanism of injury, should receive more emphasis as a target for critical care interventions.

Advanced age, severity of initial neurological deficit, and various measures of CT lesion volume were also associated with poor HRQOL in our study and have previously been identified as risk factors for poor HRQOL in patients with ischemic stroke. In the 2-year follow-up assessment of HRQOL in the Northern East Melbourne Stroke Incidence Study trial,² the authors identified handicap (measured by the London Handicap scale), neurological impairment (measured by the NIHSS), anxiety and depression, disability (measured by Barthel Index), institutionalization, dementia, and age to be associated with poor HRQOL. All of these factors were evaluated concurrently with the assessment of HRQOL. When considering baseline characteristics in relation to HRQOL reported 2 years after stroke onset, the authors found age, female gender, initial NIHSS score, neglect, and low socioeconomic status to be significant independent predictors of poor HRQOL. In the 1- and 3-year follow-up assessment of HRQOL in stroke subjects recruited from the South London Stroke Register,⁴ the authors identified female gender, manual workers, diabetes, right hemispheric lesions, urinary incontinence, and cognitive impairment to be significant independent predictors of poor physical health and being Asian, age (< 65 years), ischemic heart disease, and cognitive impairment to be independent predictors of poor mental health.

Given the frequent use of the Barthel Index and the mRS in clinical practice of patients with stroke, these scales are frequently used as outcome measures and proxies for HRQOL.^26,27 Measures of functional outcome may also be more sensitive to differences in health among patients with stroke and development in health status over time. In the ICH population, it is therefore of interest to examine the extent to which the mRS represents a reasonable proxy for HRQOL. Our analysis of the relationship between the level of functional outcome observed at Day 90 and the VAS score and the utility score revealed a consistent decrease in overall quality of life with higher levels of disability. Given these observations, it would appear reasonable to use the mRS as a proxy for HRQOL when direct measures of HRQOL are missing.

A major strength of our study is the prospective assessment of HRQOL in a large global ICH population with a high level of follow-up. By evaluating potential risk factors before HRQOL assessment and analyzing these in multivariate regression, it was possible to identify independent predictors of poor HRQOL rather than simple associations. We selected a range of predictors easily observable at baseline and in the acute phase of treatment to illustrate the potential for the treating physicians to affect HRQOL in the months after ICH. The independent significance of clinical variables at baseline and acute phase of treatment indicates the potential for the treating physician to affect HRQOL in the acute phase of the hospital stay.

There are certain limitations to our study that must be considered. First, the patients in the trial represent a selected group of patients with ICH, in particular given the short timeline from symptom onset to CT scan, and hence it is questionable to what extent our results can be generalized to the entire ICH population. Second, we used a generic measure of HRQOL designed to measure quality-of-life outcomes for any disease or treatment as opposed to disease-specific dimensions. Although the EuroQoL has been shown to be a valid measure of HRQOL after stroke,¹⁵ the instrument may nevertheless not reveal the full spectrum of symptoms and impairments associated with stroke, in particular psychological complications.²⁸ However, in the conduct of international stroke trials, there are few scales better suited for quality-of-life evaluation than the EuroQOL. Third, there are important potentially relevant nonclinical risk factors that were not assessed in our study, including socioeconomic status of the patients, the social support available, the role of caregivers, and the overall quality of the stroke care delivered.

In summary, we found very poor HRQOL to be a common outcome after ICH. Quality of life deserves more attention as an end point in ICH epidemiological studies and clinical trials, and critical care interventions focused on control of blood pressure and the prevention of neuroworsening hold promise as potential strategies to improve HRQOL among ICH survivors.