Serum Malondialdehyde Levels and Mortality in Patients with Spontaneous Intracerebral Hemorrhage.

Objective: Oxidative stress has been associated with secondary brain injury after spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (SIH). Malondialdehyde (MDA) appears in blood during lipid oxidation. Higher serum MDA levels have been found in patients with SIH than in healthy controls; however, we have not found data indicating an association between elevated serum MDA and early mortality in this population. This was the main objective of our study.

Methods: MDA levels were measured in serum samples obtained from 100 patients at diagnosis of severe SIH (Glasgow Coma Scale score ≤8) and 80 healthy controls. The endpoint of the study was mortality at 30 days.

Results: Serum MDA levels were significantly higher in patients with severe SIH than in healthy controls (1.46 [1.18-2.2] vs. 1.11 [0.72-1.51]; P < 0.001), and in nonsurviving (n = 46) than in surviving (n = 54) patients (1.68 [1.23-4.02] vs. 1.37 [0.99-1.92]; P = 0.002). The area under the receiving operating characteristic curve of serum MDA levels to predict 30-day mortality was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.58-0.77; P < 0.001). Serum MDA levels were associated with 30-day mortality (OR, 6.279; 95% CI, 1.940-20.319; P = 0.002).

Conclusions: The most important new finding of our study is that there is an association between serum MDA levels at diagnosis of severe SIH and early mortality.