Impact of Cerebral Microbleeds in Stroke Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Yannie Soo, Annaelle Zietz, Brian Yiu, Vincent C. T. Mok, Alexandros A. Polymeris, David Seiffge, Gareth Ambler, Duncan Wilson, Thomas Wai Hong Leung, Suk Fung Tsang, Winnie Chu, Jill Abrigo, Cyrus Cheng, Keon-Joo Lee, Jae-Sung Lim, Masayuki Shiozawa, Masatoshi Koga, Hugues Chabriat, Michael Hennerici, Yuen Kwun WongHenry Mak, Roger Collet, Shigeru Inamura, Kazuhisa Yoshifuji, Ethem Murat Arsava, Solveig Horstmann, Jan Purrucker, Bonnie Y. K. Lam, Adrian Wong, Young Dae Kim, Tae-Jin Song, Robin Lemmens, Sebastian Eppinger, Thomas Gattringer, Ender Uysal, Derya Selçuk Demirelli, Natan M. Bornstein, Einor Ben Assayag, Hen Hallevi, Jeremy Molad, Masashi Nishihara, Jun Tanaka, Shelagh B. Coutts, L. Jaap Kappelle, Rustam Al-Shahi Salman, Rolf Jager, Gregory Y. H. Lip, Martina B. Goeldlin, Leonidas D. Panos, Jean-Louis Mas, Laurence Legrand, Chris Karayiannis, Thanh Phan, Maximilian Bellut, Francesca Chappell, Stephen Makin, Derek Hayden, David Williams, Dianne H. K. van Dam-Nolen, Paul J. Nederkoorn, Carmen Barbato, Simone Browning, Kim Wiegertjes, Anil Man Tuladhar, Anne-Marie Mendyk, Sebastian Köhler, Robert van Oostenburgge, Ying Zhou, Chao Xu, Saima Hilal, Bibek Gyanwali, Christopher Chen, Min Lou, Julie Staals, Regis Bordet, Nagaendran Kandiah, Frank-Erik de Leeuw, Robert Simister, Jeroen Hendrikse, Joanna Wardlaw, Peter Kelly, Felix Fluri, Velandai Srikanth, David Calvet, Simon Jung, I. H. Kwa Vincent, Eric E. Smith, Hideo Hara, Yusuke Yakushiji, Dilek Necioglu Orken, Franz Fazekas, Vincent Thijs, Ji-Hoe Heo, Roland Veltkamp, Hakan Ay, Toshio Imaizumi, Kui Kai Lau, Eric Jouvent, Kazunori Toyoda, Sohei Yoshimura, Hee-Joon Bae, Joan Martí-Fàbregas, Luis Prats-Sánchez, Philippe Lyrer, Jonathan Best, David Werring, Stefan T. Engelter, Nils Peters, the Microbleeds International Collaborative Network

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objectives Cerebral microbleeds are associated with the risks of ischemic stroke and intracranial hemorrhage, causing clinical dilemmas for antithrombotic treatment decisions. We aimed to evaluate the risks of intracranial hemorrhage and ischemic stroke associated with microbleeds in patients with atrial fibrillation treated with vitamin K antagonists, direct oral anticoagulants, antiplatelets, and combination therapy (i.e. concurrent oral anticoagulant and antiplatelet). Methods We included patients with documented atrial fibrillation from the pooled individual patient data analysis by the Microbleeds International Collaborative Network. Risks of subsequent intracranial hemorrhage and ischemic stroke were compared between patients with and without microbleeds, stratified by antithrombotic use. Results A total of 7,839 patients were included. The presence of microbleeds was associated with an increased relative risk of intracranial hemorrhage (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 2.74, 95.76–4.26) and ischemic stroke (aHR = 1.29, 95.04–1.59). For the entire cohort, the absolute incidence of ischemic stroke was higher than intracranial hemorrhage regardless of microbleed burden. However, for the subgroup of patients taking combination of anticoagulant and antiplatelet therapy, the absolute risk of intracranial hemorrhage exceeded that of ischemic stroke in those with 2 to 4 microbleeds (25 vs 12 per 1,000 patient-years) and ≥ 11 microbleeds (94 vs 48 per 1,000 patient-years). Interpretation Patients with atrial fibrillation and high burden of microbleeds receiving combination therapy have a tendency of higher rate of intracranial hemorrhage than ischemic stroke, with potential for net harm. Further studies are needed to help optimize stroke preventive strategies in this high-risk group. ANN NEUROL 2023;94:61–74
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)61-74
Number of pages14
JournalAnnals of Neurology
Volume94
Issue number1
Early online date17 Mar 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
This study was funded by the Swiss Heart Foundation. Furthermore, the study was funded in part by Wellcome Trust (WT088134/Z/09/A) and for the purpose of openaccess, co-authors have applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. The authors would like to thank the patients that participated in the various cohorts. Open access funding provided by Universitat Basel.

Research Funding
Swiss Heart Foundation
Wellcome [WT088134/Z/09/A]
Open access funding provided by Universitat Basel.

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Impact of Cerebral Microbleeds in Stroke Patients with Atrial Fibrillation'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this