What causes a basal ganglia bleed?

Basal ganglia bleed is usually either hemorrhagic stroke (from a ruptured blood vessel) or a hemorrhagic transformation of an ischemic stroke. This means there was a stroke from a blocked blood vessel, and then later the tissue death leads to a burst blood vessel.

Risk Factors

Risk factors for basal ganglia strokes are the same as for strokes in general, as well as some that seem to be peculiar to bleeding into the basal ganglia. In addition to the usual vascular risk factors (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, obesity), the following features, which are all risk factors for cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), have also been associated with an increased risk of basal ganglia hemorrhage:

* Older age

* White race

* Female sex

* APOE 4 allele (a common genetic variant associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer disease)

* History of head trauma

* Smoking

* Alcohol use

* Hypertension

* Diabetes

* Use of anticoagulant medications