Hemorrhagic stroke in the setting of COVID-19 is associated with anticoagulation use

ABSTRACT

Introduction: While the thrombotic complications of COVID-19 have been described, there are limited data on its implications in hemorrhagic stroke. The clinical characteristics, underlying stroke mechanism, and outcomes in this group of patients are especially salient as empiric therapeutic anticoagulation becomes increasingly common in the treatment and prevention of thrombotic complications of COVID-19. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with hemorrhagic stroke (both nontraumatic intracerebral hemorrhage and spontaneous non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage) who were hospitalized between 3/1/20-5/15/20 at a NYC hospital system, during the coronavirus pandemic. We compared the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with hemorrhagic stroke and COVID-19 to those without COVID-19 admitted to our hospital between 3/1/20-5/15/20 (contemporary controls) and 3/1/19-5/15/19 (historical controls), using Fischer's exact test and nonparametric testing. We adjusted for multiple comparisons using the Bonferroni method. Results: During the study period, 19 out of 4071 (0.5%) patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19 had hemorrhagic stroke on imaging. Of all COVID-19 with hemorrhagic stroke, only 3 had non-aneurysmal SAH without intraparenchymal hemorrhage. Among hemorrhagic stroke and COVID-19 patients, coagulopathy was the most common etiology (73.7%);empiric anticoagulation was started in 89.5% vs 4.2% of contemporary and 10.0% of historical controls (both with p = <0.001). Compared to contemporary and historical controls, COVID-19 patients had higher initial NIHSS scores, INR, PTT and fibrinogen levels. These patients also had higher rates of in-hospital mortality [84.6% vs. 4.6%, p =<0.001]. Sensitivity analyses excluding patients with strictly subarachnoid hemorrhage yielded similar results. Conclusion: We observed an overall low rate of imaging-confirmed hemorrhagic stroke among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Most hemorrhages in COVID-19 patients occurred in the setting of therapeutic anticoagulation and were associated with increased mortality. Further studies are needed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of therapeutic anticoagulation in COVID-19 patients.