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Background: The association between atrial fibrillation (AF) and the prognosis of acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) remains controversial; whether the recombinant tissue plasminogen activator dose influences this association remains poorly understood., Methods: Patients who had an AIS were enrolled from eight stroke centres in China. According to the recombinant tissue plasminogen activator dose, patients treated with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator within 4.5 hours after symptom onset were divided into a low-dose group (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator <0.85 mg/kg) and a standard-dose group (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator ≥0.85 mg/kg). Patients who had an AIS in the low-dose group and the standard dose group were divided into whether or not they had AF. The main outcomes were major disability (modified Rankin scale (mRS) score 3-5), mortality and vascular events occurring within 3 months., Results: The study included 630 patients who received recombinant tissue plasminogen activator after AIS, including 391 males and 239 females, with a mean age of 65.8 years. Of these patients, 305 (48.4%) received low-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator and 325 (51.6%) received standard dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator. The recombinant tissue plasminogen activator dose significantly influenced the association between AF and death or major disability (p-interaction=0.036). After multivariate adjustment, AF was associated with an increased risk of death or major disability (OR 2.90, 95% CI 1.47 to 5.72, p=0.002), major disability (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.04 to 3.59, p=0.038) and vascular events (HR 5.01, 95% CI 2.25 to 11.14, p<0.001) within 3 months in patients with standard-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator. No significant association was found between AF and any clinical outcome in patients with low-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (all p>0.05). With AF, the mRS score distribution showed a significantly worse shift in patients with standard-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (p=0.016) than in those with low-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (p=0.874)., Conclusions: AF may be a strong predictor of poor prognosis in patients who had an AIS receiving standard-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator, suggesting that low-dose recombinant tissue plasminogen activator should be administered to patients who had a stroke with AF to improve their prognosis., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Postgraduate Medical Journal. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

This study aimed to investigate the association between dynamic changes in fibrinogen and the prognosis of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). We measured fibrinogen levels at admission and 24 h after IVT in 364 consecutively recruited AIS patients. The primary outcome was the composite measure of death or major disability (modified Rankin Scale score 3-6) at 3 months. During the 3-month follow-up, 127 (34.89%) patients experienced death or major disability. After multivariate adjustment, a ≥ 2.5% increase in fibrinogen was associated with an increased risk of the primary outcome (odds ratio [OR], 2.26; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-4.75; p trend = 0.030) when 2 extreme tertiles were compared. Each 1% increase in fibrinogen after IVT was associated with a 1% increase in the risk of the primary outcome (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.03). Multivariable-adjusted spline regression revealed a linear dose-response relationship between fibrinogen changes after IVT and the primary outcome (p for linearity = 0.032). The addition of fibrinogen changes to conventional risk factors improved the re-classification (but not discrimination) of the primary outcome (net reclassification index 27.6%, p = 0.011). These findings indicated that an increase in fibrinogen after IVT was associated with an increased risk of death or major disability in AIS patients, suggesting that monitoring the dynamic profile of fibrinogen levels may help neurologists improve stroke outcomes in clinical settings.

Background: Less is known about the prognostic value of serum cystatin C in acute ischemic stroke (AIS) patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT). The aim of the present study was to examine the association between serum cystatin C levels and prognosis of AIS patients after IVT., Methods: Serum cystatin C was measured within 24 hours after recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) treatment in 280 consecutively recruited patients with AIS. The main outcomes included combination of death and major disability, death, major disability (modified Rankin Scale score 3-5) and vascular events at 3-month follow-up., Results: During the 3-month follow-up, 94 patients (33.6%) experienced death or major disability (28 deaths and 66 major disability) and 49 patients (17.5%) experienced vascular events. After multivariate adjustment, serum cystatin C was significantly associated with an increased risk of the combined outcome of death and major disability (OR=4.51, P = 0.006). Adding serum cystatin C quartiles to a model containing conventional risk factors improved the predictive power for the combined outcome of death and major disability (continuous net reclassification index 43.88%, P < 0.001; categorical net reclassification index 9.15%, P = 0.013; integrated discrimination improvement 2.31%, P = 0.025). Similar phenomena were also observed in major disability and vascular events., Conclusion: Higher levels of serum cystatin C in AIS patients after IVT were independently associated with increased risks of poor functional outcomes and vascular events, especially combining conventional risk factors, suggesting that serum cystatin C might improve risk prediction for poor prognosis in AIS patients receiving rt-PA treatment., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.net.)

Background: The prognostic value of White Blood Cell (WBC) counts and C-reactive Protein (CRP) in clinical outcomes of Acute Ischemic Stroke (AIS) patients after Intravenous Thrombolysis (IVT) remains unknown. We investigated the association of WBC counts and CRP with 3-month functional outcomes and all-cause mortality in AIS patients., Methods: 447 AIS patients treated with IVT between May 2010 and May 2017 were enrolled. WBC counts and CRP were measured within 24 hours after IVT. The main outcomes included poor functional outcomes (modified Rankin score ≥3) at 3 months and 3-month all-cause mortality., Results: High WBC counts were associated with poor functional outcomes (adjusted OR (odds ratio) 4.48; 95% CI (confidence interval) 2.00-10.03; P-trend<0.001) and with all-cause mortality (adjusted HR (hazard ratio) 2.19; 95% CI 1.07-4.49; P-trend=0.018). In addition, high CRP levels were associated with poor functional outcomes (adjusted OR 4.95; 95% CI 1.39-17.65; Ptrend= 0.002). However, no significant association between high CRP levels and all-cause mortality was observed (adjusted HR 2.61; 95% CI 0.80-8.47; P-trend=0.138)., Conclusion: Our analysis indicated that elevated WBC counts and CRP levels after IVT can independently predict poor outcome among AIS patients., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

Objective: To evaluate the relation of serum uric acid levels on admission with short-term clinical outcome and hemorrhagic transformation (HT) in patients with acute ischemic stroke treated with thrombolysis., Methods: A total of 230 acute ischemic stroke patients treated with thrombolysis in our stroke unit from 2010 to 2013 were included. Demographics, disease severity, the uric acid levels on admission and hemorrhagic transformation were prospectively collected. At 90 days, the scores of the modified Rankin Scale>2 (mRS>2) was defined as poor prognosis and the scores of mRS≤2 was defined as excellent outcome. Stepwise Logistic regression models were used to analyze potential factors affecting the prognosis., Results: The levels of serum uric acid in the patients with excellent outcome were significantly higher than in patients with poor outcome [(375±42) µmol/L vs (250±36) µmol/L, P=0.0026]. Logistic regression analysis revealed that high level of serum uric acid was related to excellent outcome (OR=1.25, 95% CI, 1.04-1.47, P=0.013). The serum uric acid level of non HT patients was significantly higher than the HT patients [(350±51) µmol/L vs (282±38) µmol/L, P=0.015]. After adjustment for the influence factors including age and hypertension, the level of uric acid was still negatively correlated with HT., Conclusion: Increased serum uric acid levels are associated with low incidence of HT and better prognosis in patients with stroke treated with reperfusion therapy.

Background and Purpose: Soluble corin was decreased in coronary heart disease. Given the connections between cardiac dysfunction and stroke, circulating corin might be a candidate marker of stroke risk. However, the association between circulating corin and stroke has not yet been studied in humans. Here, we aimed to examine the association in patients wtith stroke and community-based healthy controls., Methods: Four hundred eighty-one patients with ischemic stroke, 116 patients with hemorrhagic stroke, and 2498 healthy controls were studied. Serum soluble corin and some conventional risk factors of stroke were examined. Because circulating corin was reported to be varied between men and women, the association between serum soluble corin and stroke was evaluated in men and women, respectively., Results: Patients with ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke had a significantly lower level of serum soluble corin than healthy controls in men and women (all P values, <0.05). In multivariate analysis, men in the lowest quartile of serum soluble corin were more likely to have ischemic (odds ratio [OR], 4.90; 95% confidence interval, 2.99-8.03) and hemorrhagic (OR, 17.57; 95% confidence interval, 4.85-63.71) stroke than men in the highest quartile. Women in the lowest quartile of serum soluble corin were also more likely to have ischemic (OR, 3.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.76-5.44) and hemorrhagic (OR, 8.54; 95% confidence interval, 2.35-31.02) stroke than women in the highest quartile. ORs of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke were significantly increased with the decreasing levels of serum soluble corin in men and women (all P values for trend, <0.001)., Conclusions: Serum soluble corin was decreased in patients with stroke compared with healthy controls. Our findings raise the possibility that serum soluble corin may have a pathogenic role in stroke., (© 2015 American Heart Association, Inc.)