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Updated: Nov 29, 2025
A Murine Model of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
Published on: November 21, 2013
Regional Differences in the Response to Acute Blood Pressure Lowering After Cerebral Hemorrhage
Kazunori Toyoda1, Yuko Y Palesch2, Masatoshi Koga2
1From the Department of Cerebrovascular Medicine (K. Toyoda, M.K., S.Y., K. Tanaka, K.M.), Center for Advancing Clinical and Translational Sciences (H.Y., M.F.-D., S.O.), and Department of Neurology (M.I.), National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Japan; Department of Public Health Sciences (Y.Y.P., L.F.), Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston; Department of Neurology (Y.H.), St. Marianna University School of Medicine, Kawasaki; Department of Neurosurgery and Stroke Center (Y.S.), Kyorin University School of Medicine, Mitaka; Department of Neurosurgery (T.I.), Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine; Department of Neurosurgery (K.K.), Nakamura Memorial Hospital, Sapporo; Department of Neurology (H.H.), Tokyo Saiseikai Central Hospital, Japan; Department of Neurology (T.S.), Klinikum Frankfurt Höchst, Germany; Department of Neurology (B.-W.Y.), Seoul National University Hospital, South Korea; Beijing Tiantan Hospital (Y.W.), China; China Medical University (C.Y.H.), Taichung, Taiwan; and Zeenat Qureshi Stroke Research Center (A.I.Q.), University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. toyoda@ncvc.go.jp.
Objective:
To compare the impact of intensive blood pressure (BP) lowering right after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) on clinical and hematoma outcomes among patients from different geographic locations, we performed a prespecified subanalysis of a randomized, multinational, 2-group, open-label trial to determine the efficacy of rapidly lowering BP in hyperacute ICH (Antihypertensive Treatment of Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage [ATACH]-2), involving 537 patients from East Asia and 463 recruited outside of Asia.
Methods:
Eligible patients were randomly assigned to a systolic BP target of 110 to 139 mm Hg (intensive treatment) or 140 to 179 mm Hg (standard treatment). Predefined outcomes were poor functional outcome (modified Rankin Scale score 4-6 at 90 days), death within 90 days, hematoma expansion at 24 hours, and cardiorenal adverse events within 7 days.
Results:
Poor functional outcomes (32.0% vs 45.9%), death (1.9% vs 13.3%), and cardiorenal adverse events (3.9% vs 11.2%) occurred significantly less frequently in patients from Asia than those outside of Asia. The treatment-by-cohort interaction was not significant for any outcomes. Only patients from Asia showed a lower incidence of hematoma expansion with intensive treatment (adjusted relative risk [RR] 0.56, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.38-0.83). Both Asian (RR 3.53, 95% CI 1.28-9.64) and non-Asian (RR 1.71, 95% CI 1.00-2.93) cohorts showed a higher incidence of cardiorenal adverse events with intensive treatment.
Conclusions:
Poor functional outcomes and death 90 days after ICH were less common in patients from East Asia than those outside of Asia. Hematoma expansion, a potential predictor for poor clinical outcome, was attenuated by intensive BP lowering only in the Asian cohort.
Clinicaltrialsgov Identifier:
NCT01176565.
Classification Of Evidence:
This study provides Class II evidence that, for patients from East Asia with ICH, intensive blood pressure lowering significantly reduces the risk of hematoma expansion.
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