Introduction:
Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) have been increasingly reported in patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. Both, CMBs and cerebral white-matter disease (WMD) are thought to be a result of microvascular lipo-hyalinosis; as commonly seen in an aging brain. The pathogenesis of microbleeds after ECMO, has not yet been definitively established. We sought to examine the relationship between cerebral WMD burden and microbleeds after ECMO-support at a single tertiary referral academic hospital with high volumes of ECMO patients.
Methods:
All patients receiving venovenous (vv) and venoarterial (va) ECMO between January 2013 to January 2018 were retrospectively examined. The distribution of white matter hyperintensities was quantified using the Walhund age-related white matter changes (ARWMC) scale and correlated with the presence of cerebral microbleeds on brain MRI studies with Susceptibility Weighted Imaging (SWI) performed shortly after cessation of ECMO.
Results:
A total of 307 ECMO patients were reviewed, among whom 44 patients (vv:va= 13:31; male:female= 29:15) received at-least one MRI-brain study with SWI sequences after ECMO decannulation. The median duration of ECMO support was 4 days (range 1-25 days), with median duration from decannulation-to-MRI being 11.5 days (range 3-724 days). Microbleeds were present in 77.3% (n=34) patients, with 38.2% (n=13), 14.7% (n=5), and 47.1% (n=16) having mild (<10), moderate (10-30) and severe (>30) CMBs respectively. The median Walhund ARWMC score was 1 (range 0-22). Age and sex adjusted Walhund scores were not found predictive of CMB presence (p=0.578 [0.90-1.19]). Of 44 patients with at-least one post-ECMO MRI, 10 patients had a follow-up MRI scan at a median duration of 4 months (range 0.22-55 months); all of whom had unchanged CMB burden. At 10-month median clinical follow-up (range 0-76 months), none of the 34 patients with CMBs on initial MRI-study had presented with an intracranial hemorrhage.
Conclusion:
Development of CMBs after ECMO support is independent of microvascular lipo-hyalinosis, as estimated from cerebral white-matter disease burden. This requires further study in a larger sample-size.
Cerebral Microbleeds After Use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Children
