Abstract
BACKGROUND: Liver diseases are suspected risk factors for intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH). We conducted a population-based case-control study to examine risk of ICH among hospitalised patients with liver cirrhosis and other liver diseases. METHODS: We used data from the hospital discharge registries (1991-2003) and the Civil Registration System in Denmark, to identify 3,522 cases of first-time hospitalisation for ICH and 35,173 sex- and age-matched population controls. Among cases and controls we identified patients with a discharge diagnosis of liver cirrhosis or other liver diseases before the date of ICH. We computed odds ratios for ICH by conditional logistic regressions, adjusting for a number of confounding factors. RESULTS: There was an increased risk of ICH for patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis (adjusted OR = 4.8, 95% CI: 2.7-8.3), non-alcoholic liver cirrhosis (adjusted OR = 7.7, 95% CI: 2.0-28.9) and non-cirrhotic alcoholic liver disease (adjusted OR = 5.4, 95%CI:3.1-9.5) but not for patients with non-cirrhotic non-alcoholic liver diseases (adjusted OR = 0.9, 95%CI:0.5-1.6). The highest risk was found among women with liver cirrhosis (OR = 8.9, 95%CI:2.9-26.7) and for patients younger than 70 years (OR = 6.1, 95%CI:3.4-10.9). There were no sex- or age-related differences in the association between other liver diseases (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) and hospitalisation with ICH. CONCLUSION: Patients with liver cirrhosis and non-cirrhotic alcoholic liver disease have a clearly increased risk for ICH.