Journal Club: Time trends in incidence, case fatality, and mortality of intracerebral hemorrhage

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) remains one of the most catastrophic stroke subtypes, with high case-fatality rate and poor functional outcomes. In the Journal Club article “Time trends in incidence, case fatality, and mortality of intracerebral hemorrhage” by Jolink et al.,1 hospital and population registries were used to assess age- and sex-specific trends in incidence and case fatality of patients with ICH in the Netherlands. The study provides a significant epidemiologic contribution examining a large cohort of patients with ICH from 1980 to 2010. The authors report a decline in incidence, case-fatality, and mortality rates of ICH in men and women younger than 75 years but stable rates in patients 75 years and older in the Dutch population. Although these data do not have direct implications for clinical practice, and their generalizability to all ICH patient populations may be limited, they are very useful in consolidating epidemiologic knowledge about ICH in the last decades.