Predicting the likelihood of hemorrhage in patients with stroke

To identify those clinical findings that independently help differentiate intracranial hemorrhage from cerebral infarction, we studied patients who were admitted to a hospital with acute focal neurologic deficits after strokes during a 17-month period. The predictive strength of a decision-making aid incorporating these findings was then assessed by studying patients who were admitted to a different hospital after experiencing strokes. The decision-making aid stratified the patients into groups having probabilities of intracranial hemorrhage ranging from 5% to 67%. The results of this study may facilitate more discriminating test selection during the early evaluation of patients who have had strokes.