DIFFERENT VASCULAR RISK FACTOR PROFILES IN PRIMARY INTRACEREBRAL HEMORRHAGE AND SMALL DEEP INFARCTS DO NOT SUGGEST SIMILAR TYPES OF UNDERLYING SMALL VESSEL DISEASE

We compared 83 patients with primary intracerebral haemorrhage (PICH), 242 with a small deep infarct (SDI), and 430 with cortical infarcts b y means of multivariate logistic regression analysis. Diabetes mellitu s and a history of ischaemic heart disease were significantly less str ongly associated with haemorrhage than with infarct of either type (od ds ratio: 0.36; 95% confidence interval: 0.14-0.87, respectively: 0.11 ; 0.03-0.50); whereas hypertension did not emerge as an independent va riable associated with stroke subtype. However, hypertension might hav e been more severe in the haemorrhage group. These differences in vasc ular risk factors do not support the idea of a similar nature of the u nderlying small vessel disease in PICH and the majority of SDI.