Evaluating the predictive capabilities of haematoma expansion scores in patients with acute intracerebral haemorrhage: protocol for a scoping review.

Introduction: Patients presenting with acute intracerebral haemorrhage are at a high risk of exhibiting haematoma expansion, a phenomenon that can significantly worsen long-term functioning. Numerous clinical and radiological factors are associated with expansion. In a bid to better select patients at increased risk of expanding, these factors have been collated together into clinical scores. Several clinical scores have been developed, but comparisons of diagnostic potential between these scores are limited and the frequency of use in clinical trial enrolment is unknown.

Objective: To perform a scoping review of haematoma expansion scores and explore numerous factors such as the methodology of development and diagnostic capabilities.

Methods And Analysis: MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, CENTRAL and ClinicalTrials.gov will be searched with assistance from an experienced information specialist. Eligible studies will involve adults presenting with spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage who received baseline assessments, follow-up imaging and risk stratification through a haematoma expansion score. Reviewers will independently extract data from the included studies and will collect data on patient demographics and medical history, details on score development, diagnostic capabilities and usage proportions. Analysis of extracted data will focus on comparing the predictive capability of each score and similarities/differences in score development. The exact analysis technique will be dictated on the type of data extracted.

Ethics And Dissemination: Formal ethics is not required as primary data will not be collected. The findings of this study will be disseminated through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.