Non-traumatic cerebral hemorrhage in Saudi Arabs: a hospital-based study of 243 cases

This is a retrospective study involving 243 Saudi Arabs with non-traumatic cerebral hemorrhages confirmed by CT scan. Intracerebral hemorrhages accounted for about 20% of all strokes in this population. THe male to female ratio was 2.74 which is slightly higher than those reported from elsewhere. Peak frequency was around 60 years. Hypertension was the most common cause accounting for 64% of the cases, hemopathies/coagulopathies for 10% and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) for 6%. THe cause was undetermined in 21% of patients. Amyloid angiopathy was probably underrepresented due to lack of autopsy correlation. The etiologies were, however, age-related with a clear predominance of AVMs and coagulation disorders before the age of 40 years. Hypertensive hemorrhages were located in the putamen in 46% of cases compared to 20% in non-hypertensive patients while 52% of non-hypertensive hemorrhages were lobar in location compared to 20.5% in hypertensives. Early mortality (19%) in our series was relatively low compared to reports from the industrialized world.