Blend sign predicts poor outcome in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage.

INTRODUCTION: Blend sign has been recently described as a novel imaging marker that predicts hematoma expansion. The purpose of our study was to investigate the prognostic value of CT blend sign in patients with ICH.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS: Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage who underwent baseline CT scan within 6 hours were included. The presence of blend sign on admission nonenhanced CT was independently assessed by two readers. The functional outcome was assessed by using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 90 days.

RESULTS: Blend sign was identified in 40 of 238 (16.8%) patients on admission CT scan. The proportion of patients with a poor functional outcome was significantly higher in patients with blend sign than those without blend sign (75.0% versus 47.5%, P = 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that age, intraventricular hemorrhage, admission GCS score, baseline hematoma volume and presence of blend sign on baseline CT independently predict poor functional outcome at 90 days. The CT blend sign independently predicts poor outcome in patients with ICH (odds ratio 3.61, 95% confidence interval [1.47-8.89];p = 0.005).

CONCLUSIONS: Early identification of blend sign is useful in prognostic stratification and may serve as a potential therapeutic target for prospective interventional studies.