A cute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is the most serious and least treatable form of acute stroke 1 for which established prognostic factors include clinical severity and location and volume of hematoma at presentation.2 Although stress hyperglycemia is associated with adverse outcomes in many medical conditions, including acute ischemic stroke, 3,4 traumatic brain injury, 5 and acute myocardial infarction, 6 evidence specifically related to the critical condition of ICH is varied and conflicting because of previous studies being limited to small single-center series 7,8 with short duration of follow-up. 9 Animal models have shown that elevated blood pressure (BP) exacerbates cerebral injury after ICH 10 and of an association between hyperglycemia and cerebral edema. There may be a supra-additive effect of hyperglycemia and Background and Purpose-We aimed to determine associations of baseline blood glucose and diabetes mellitus with clinical outcomes in participants of the Intensive Blood Pressure Reduction in Acute Cerebral Hemorrhage Trial (INTERACT2). Methods-INTERACT2 was an international prospective, open, blinded end point, randomized controlled trial of 2839 patients with spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (<6 hours) and elevated systolic blood pressure randomly assigned to intensive (target systolic blood pressure <140 mm Hg) or guideline-based (systolic blood pressure <180 mm Hg) BP management. Associations of hyperglycemia at presentation (>6.5 mmol/L) and combined and separate poor outcomes of death and major disability (scores of 3-6, 3-5, and 6, respectively, on the modified Rankin scale) at 90 days were determined in logistic regression models. Results-In 2653 patients with available data, there were 1348 (61%) with hyperglycemia and 292 (11%) with diabetes mellitus. Associations of baseline blood glucose and poor outcome were strong and near continuous. After adjustment for baseline variables, the highest fourth (7.9-25.0 mmol/L) of blood glucose was significantly associated with combined poor outcome (adjusted odds ratio 1.
Materials and MethodsINTERACT2 was an international, multicenter, prospective, openlabel, assessor-blinded end point, randomized controlled trial, the details of which are described elsewhere. 11 In brief, 2839 patients with computed tomography-confirmed spontaneous ICH within 6 hours of onset and elevated systolic BP (150-220 mm Hg) were randomly assigned to receive intensive (target systolic BP <140 mm Hg within 1 hour) or guideline-recommended (target systolic BP <180 mm Hg) BP-lowering therapy using locally available agents according to standardized protocols. The study protocol was approved by the appropriate ethics committee at each participating site, and written informed consent was obtained from the patient or an appropriate surrogate.Demographic and clinical characteristics recorded at the time of enrollment included a history of diabetes mellitus and level of blood glucose. Stroke severity was measured using the Glasgow coma scale and National Institutes of He...