Cerebral microbleeds and quality of life in acute ischemic stroke

This study evaluated the impact of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in 458 Chinese patients with first or recurrent acute ischemic stroke. HRQoL was assessed with the Short Form-36 (SF-36). Univariate analysis showed the presence of lobar CMBs to be negatively correlated with patients’ physical functioning (PF; p \u3c 0.01), social function (SF; p \u3c 0.01), and role-emotional (RE; p \u3c 0.05) scores. Subsequent linear regression analysis revealed lobar CMBs to be independently associated with the PF and SF scores (p \u3c 0.05). The limitations of this study include the exclusion of patients with more severe stroke, the lack of longitudinal assessments, the use of a generic rather than stroke-specific HRQoL scale, and the less than optimal sensitivity of the CMB measurement. The study findings suggest that CMBs have a significant impact on the HRQoL of stroke survivors