Microbleeds a Marker for Stroke Complications

A study has found that patients with previous microscopic bleeding in the brain are much more likely to develop cerebral bleeding (CB) after stroke, compared to patients without microbleeds. Conducted by French researchers, the study was published in the March 2002 issue of Stroke.

The researchers used a new imaging technique called T2-weighted gradient-echo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect the microbleeds. This technique is more sensitive that conventional MRI, which can fail to detect CB at an early stage of stroke. In the study, early CB was diagnosed in 26 of 100 stroke patients, aged 19-83. Eighteen were diagnosed at the acute stage and eight within the first week. The researchers found that the patients with a history of microbleeds were seven times more likely than others to develop CB after stroke. They say the use of microbleeds as a marker for serious stroke complications may help doctors identify patients who need to be treated more cautiously.

Old microbleeds can indicate that small blood vessels are diseased, which can be worsened by hypertension, diabetes, and the chronic use of drugs to prevent clots. "I urge practitioners to carefully manage patients with diabetes and hypertension because they could be at increased risk of microbleeds and for cerebral bleeding,” says Norbert Nighoghossian, M.D., professor of neurology at the Hospital Neurologique in Lyon (France) and lead author of the study.


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