Sex Modifies the Severity and Outcome of Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Objective The limited existing evidence on sex differences in the clinical characteristics of patients with spontaneous, non‐traumatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) comes from small, single‐center studies. Here, we performed an individual patient data meta‐analysis of 3 randomized clinical trials and 1 multi‐ethnic observational study of ICH to investigate the impact of sex on ICH severity and outcome. Methods Inclusion criteria in our study were a neuroimaging‐confirmed ICH. We evaluated whether sex was associated with ICH severity (hematoma volume and expansion) and poor functional outcomes (modified Rankin Scale >3) 3 or 6 months after the ICH. Results A total of 4,812 ICH patients were evaluated (mean age 62, 40% female). Males with ICH were younger, more likely to be smokers and have diabetes, and less likely to be on anticoagulants (all p