Incidence of Oral Anticoagulant―Associated Intracerebral Hemorrhage in the Netherlands

The aim of this study was to estimate the annual adult incidence and risk of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and oral anticoagulant-associated ICH (OAC-ICH) in the Netherlands. We retrospectively selected all consecutive adult patients with a nontraumatic ICH seen in 1 of 3 hospitals in the region South-Limburg, the Netherlands, from 2007 to 2009. Crude incidences were age-adjusted to Dutch and European population. We identified 652 ICH cases, of which 168 (25.8%) were OAC associated. The adult Dutch age-adjusted annual incidence of ICH and OAC-ICH was 34.8 (95% confidence interval, 32.0-37.8) and 8.7 (95% confidence interval, 7.3-10.3) per 100 000 person-years, respectively. The absolute risk of OAC-ICH was estimated at 0.46% per patient-year of OAC treatment. The annual incidences of ICH and OAC-ICH are relatively high in the Netherlands when compared with international literature.