Abstract

Approximately 15% of cerebral strokes in adults are due to bleeding into the brain (intracerebral hemorrhage, ICH). This can be related to hypertension, vascular anomalies, or coagulopathy. Prognosis following ICH is worse than that following ischemic stroke. In addition, head trauma and premature birth are associated with ICH. Inflammation occurs after ICH and might be an important part of the pathogenesis of brain damage. The goal of this review is to bring together recent diverse data concerning inflammation after ICH. There has been little investigation of the role of inflammation following ICH despite the fact that inflammation is more severe than in ischemic stroke. Inflammation in the brain follows a temporal sequence similar to that in other organs. Some cytokines and inflammatory cells may possess dual roles both deleterious and beneficial to brain after ICH. At present, experimental data only weakly support pursuit of pharmacologic anti-inflammatory strategies following ICH.

Keywords: inflammation, cytokines, adhesion molecules, leukocytes, ich, brain trauma, animal models, anti-inflammation