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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Oct 24.
Published in final edited form as: Neurocrit Care. 2014 Dec;21(Suppl 2):S297–S361. doi: 10.1007/s12028-014-0081-x

Biomarkers for acute ischemic stroke

Authors/year Study design Population N Bio-marker Sample source Findings
Markers of CNS origin
 Kazmierski, 2012 Pro AIS 458 s100β, OCLN, CLDN5, ZO1 Serum Patients with clinical deterioration due to hemorrhagic transformation had higher s100β, OCLN, and CLDN/ZO1 ratio
 Foerch, 2004 Pro AIS within 6 h of onset with proximal MCA occlusion 51 s100β Serum Mean s100β were higher in patients with malignant cerebral edema defined
s100β > 1.03 μg/L at 24 h post AIS predicted malignant infarction (94 % sensitivity; 83 % specificity)
 Missler, 1997 Pro AIS diagnosed by CT 44 s100β, NSE Serum s100β correlated with infarct volume and with 6 month outcome
NSE correlated with infarct volume but not with clinical outcome
Did not adjust for stroke subtype or tPA treatment
 Foerch, 2005 Pro AIS within 6 h of onset 39 s100β Serum s100β at 48–72 h post AIS correlated with 6 month outcome and with infarct volume
s100β ≤ 0.37 μg/L at 48 h post stroke predicted functional independence at 6 months (87 % sensitivity; 78 % specificity)
 Hermann, 2000 Pro Anterior circulation AIS 32 s100β, GFAP Serum s100β and GFAP correlated with total infarct volume and neurologic status at hospital discharge
Did not adjust for stroke subtype or tPA treatment
 Foerch, 2003 Pro AIS ≤ 5 h of onset with M1 occlusion 23 s100β Serum s100β < 0.4 μg/L at 48–96 h post-AIS predicted MCA recanalization within 6 h (86 % sensitivity; 100 % specificity)
Biomarkers of inflammation and blood brain barrier
 Den Hergot, 2009 RCT AIS ≤ 12 h onset, no liver disease, prior mRS < 2 561 CRP Serum From RCT for paracetamol for ischemic stroke
CRP measured within 12 h of stroke onset
CRP > 7 mg/L is associated with poor outcome (OR 1.6 [1.1–2.4]) and death (OR 1.7 [1.0–2.9])
 Idicula, 2009 Nested Pro AIS ≤ 24 h onset 498 CRP Serum CRP > 10 mg/L is independently associated with high NIHSS and high long term mortality at 2.5 years
 Montaner, 2006 Pro AIS in MCA territory treated with IV tPA within 3 h; exclude inflammatory disease or infection 143 CRP Serum CRP measured before tPA administration
CRP was higher in those who died after thrombolysis compared with survivors (0.85 vs. 0.53 mg/dL)
CRP is independently associated with mortality at 3 months (OR 8.51 [2.16–33.5])
 Winbeck, 2002 Pro AIS B 12 h onset, NOT treated with IV tPA 127 CRP Serum CRP > 0.86 mg/dL 24 h and at 48 h post-stroke are associated with death and lower likelihood of event-free survival at 1 year
 Topakian, 2008 Pro AIS in MCA territory treated with IV tPA ≤ 6 h of onset, exclude CRP > 6 mg/dL 111 CRP Serum CRP measured before tPA administration
CRP level was not associated with NIHSS within 24 h or outcome at 3 months
 Shantikumar, 2009 Pro AIS surviving >30 days 394 CRP Serum CRP higher in subject who died compared to survivors
CRP is independently predictive of mortality after adjusting for conventional risk factors
 Elkind, 2006 Retro Age > 40, reside in northern Manhattan > 3 months 467 hs-CRP Serum Highest quartile of hs-CRP is associated with increased risk of stroke recurrence (HR = 2.08 [1.04–4.18]) and with combined outcome of stroke, MI, or vascular death (HR = 1.86 [1.01–3.42])
 Huang, 2012 Retro Age > 40, reside in northern Manhattan > 3 months 741 hs-CRP Serum hs-CRP > 3 mg/L was associated with higher mortality at 3 months and all-cause mortality (HR = 6.48 [1.41–29.8])
 Castellanos, 2003 Pro Hemispheric AIS within 7.8 ± 4.5 h of onset 250 MMP9 Plasma MMP9 ≥ 140 μg/L predicted hemorrhagic transformation (61 % PPV; 97 % NPV)
 Castellanos, 2007 Pro AIS ≤ 3 h treated with IV tPA 134 c-Fn, MMP9 Serum MMP9 ≥ 140 μg/L predicted hemorrhagic transformation (92 % sensitivity; 74 % specificity; 26 % PPV; 99 % NPV)
c-Fn ≥ 3.6 μg/mL predicted hemorrhagic transformation (100 % sensitivity; 60 % specificity; 20 % PPV; 100 % NPV)
 Moldes, 2008 Pro AIS treated with IV tPA 134 ET-1, MMP9, c-Fn Serum ET-1, MMP9, and c-Fn measured upon admission before tPA bolus.
ET-1 and c-Fn significantly higher in those with severe cerebral edema
ET-1 > 5.5 fmol/mL before tPA was independently associated with severe brain edema in multivariate analysis
 Serena, 2005 Case control Malignant MCA infarction, <70 years 40 AIS, 35 CTRL c-Fn, MMP9 Plasma c-Fn and MMP-9 were significantly higher in patients with malignant MCA infarcts
c-Fn > 16.6 μg/mL predicted malignant infarction (90 % sensitivity; 100 % specificity; 89 % NPV; 100 % PPV)
 Montaner, 2003 Pro AIS in MCA territory treated with IV tPA within 3 h 41 MMP9 Plasma Higher baseline (pre-tPA) MMP9 was associated with hemorrhagic transformation in dose-dependent fashion
MMP9 was predictive of hemorrhagic transformation in multivariate model (OR 9.62)
 Montaner, 2001 Pro Cardioembolic AIS in MCA territory 39 MMP9 Plasma Elevated baseline MMP9 was associated with late hemorrhagic transformation in multivariate regression (OR 9)
 Castellanos, 2004 Pro AIS treated with IV tPA by ECASS II criteria 87 c-Fn Plasma c-Fn was independently associated with hemorrhagic transformation in multivariate analysis (OR 2.1).
71 of the patients were treated within 3 h of AIS onset. Similar results were found in these patients
 Guo, 2011 Pro First onset AIS 172 AIS, 50 CTRL pGSN Plasma Samples from first 24 h of stroke onset obtained.
pGSN decreased in AIS compared to controls
pGSN was independent predictor for 1-year mortality
pGSN > 52 mg/L predicted 1-year mortality (73 % sensitivity; 65.2 % specificity)
 Yin, 2013 Pro AIS 186 AIS, 100 CTRL Visfatin Plasma Visfatin was higher in AIS than in controls
Visfatin was independent predictor of 6-month clinical outcome
Adding visfatin did not improve predictive performance of NIHSS
Other biomarkers
 Haapaniem, 2000 Case control AIS 101 AIS, 101 CTRL ET-1 Plasma No difference in ET-1 levels between stroke and controls
 Lampl, 1997 Pro AIS within 18 h from onset 26 ET-1 CSF, Plasma CSF ET-1 correlated with volume of the lesion and higher in cortical infarcts compared to subcortical infarcts.
Plasma ET-1 was not elevated
 Chiquete, 2012 Pro AIS 463 UA Serum UA ≤ 4.5 mg/dL at hospital admission was associated with very good 30 day outcome (OR 1.76 [1.05–2.95]; 81.1 % NPV)
 Matsumoto, 2012 Retro AIS from non-valvular AF within 48 h of onset 124 d-dimer Plasma d-dimer level at hospital admission is independently associated with infarct volume
Highest d-dimer tertile group had worse outcome compared to middle and lowest tertiles

AF atrial fibrillation, NPV negative predictive value, PPV positive predictive value, Pro prospective observational, RCT randomized controlled trial, Retro retrospective, CTRL control subjects, NIHSS NIH stroke scale, OR odds ratio