The following is a summary of “Early fever in patients with primary intracerebral hemorrhage is associated with worse long-term functional outcomes: a prospective study,” published in the October 2023 issue of Neurology by Tseng et al.

About 85% of intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) are primary and have high morbidity and mortality rates. Researchers started a prospective study investigating the association between early fever and long-term functional outcomes in ICH.

They enrolled patients with primary ICH at a tertiary medical center from 2019 to 2021. Early fever was characterized as a tympanic body temperature of ≥ 38°C upon admission. One year after ICH, they assessed the Barthel Index (BI) and the altered Rankin scale (mRS). A BI of ≤ 60 or mRS of ≥ 4 was regarded as indicative of severe disability.

The results showed that in 100 patients, early fever was significantly associated with reduced functional independence at 1-year post-ICH, as indicated by the mRS (P=0.048; odds ratio [OR] = 0.23), and severe functional dependency at 1-year post-ICH, as noted in the BI (P=0.043; OR=3) and mRS (P=0.045; OR=3). Furthermore, patients experiencing early fever had an extended hospital endure (P=0.002; 95% CI = 21.80–95.91).

Investigators concluded early fever is associated with worse functional outcomes and more extended hospital stay in ICH survivors at 1 year.

Source: bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-023-03426-w