Association of Chronic Kidney Disease With Risk of Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Importance

The evidence linking chronic kidney disease (CKD) to spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is inconclusive owing to possible confounding by comorbidities that frequently coexist in patients with these 2 diseases.

Objective

To determine whether there is an association between CKD and ICH risk.

Design, Setting, and Participants

A 3-stage study that combined observational and genetic analyses was conducted. First, the association between CKD and ICH risk was tested in the Ethnic/Racial Variations of Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ERICH) study, a multicenter case-control study in the US. All participants with available data on CKD from ERICH were included. Second, this analysis was replicated in the UK Biobank (UKB), an ongoing population study in the UK. All participants in the UKB were included in this study. Third, mendelian randomization analyses were implemented in the UKB using 27 CKD-related genetic variants to test for genetic associations. ERICH was conducted from August 1, 2010, to August 1, 2017, and observed participants for 1 year. The UKB enrolled participants between 2006 and 2010 and will continue to observe them for 30 years. Data analysis was performed from November 11, 2019, to May 10, 2022.

Exposures

CKD stages 1 to 5.

Main Outcomes and Measures

The outcome of interest was ICH, ascertained in ERICH via expert review of neuroimages and in the UKB via a combination of self-reported data andInternational Statistical Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, codes.

Results

In the ERICH study, a total of 2914 participants with ICH and 2954 controls who had available data on CKD were evaluated (mean [SD] age, 61.6 [14.0] years; 2433 female participants [41.5%]; 3435 male participants [58.5%]); CKD was found to be independently associated with higher risk of ICH (odds ratio [OR], 1.95; 95% CI, 1.35-2.89;P < .001). This association was not modified by race and ethnicity. Replication in the UKB with 1341 participants with ICH and 501 195 controls (mean [SD] age, 56.5 [8.1] years; 273 402 female participants [54.4%]; 229 134 male participants [45.6%]) confirmed this association (OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.01-1.62;P = .04). Mendelian randomization analyses indicated that genetically determined CKD was associated with ICH risk (OR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.13-2.16;P = .007).

Conclusions and Relevance

In this 3-stage study that combined observational and genetic analyses among study participants enrolled in 2 large observational studies with different characteristics and study designs, CKD was consistently associated with higher risk of ICH. Mendelian randomization analyses suggest that this association was causal. Further studies are needed to identify the specific biological pathways that mediate this association.