Inflammatory and neuroendocrine biomarkers of prognosis after ischemic stroke

Abstract

Stroke is the third leading cause of mortality in the USA and one of the leading causes of severe morbidity. It is important to provide stroke patients and physicians with the most accurate prognostic information to optimize care and allocation of healthcare resources. Reliable prognostic markers available during the initial phase after acute stroke may aid clinical decision-making. Several interesting candidate biomarkers have been studied to address prognostic questions; this article will focus on selected inflammatory and neuroendocrine markers. The utility of a biomarker is defined by its ability to improve clinical decision-making and add timely information beyond that readily available from clinical examination and routine imaging. This aim has not been completely achieved yet for any biomarkers, but promising data are available and further studies are ongoing.

Keywords::

• inflammatory markers
• ischemic stroke
• neuroendocrine markers
• outcome
• prognostic biomarker
• risk stratification

Financial & competing interests disclosure

Mira Katan receives research support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (carrier grant) and receives unconditional research support (PI, ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00878813) from BRAHMS, Clinical Diagnostics Division, Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Mitchell Elkind serves as a consultant to Bristol-Myers Squibb and Tethys Bioscience, Inc.; serves on an event adjudication committee for Jarvik Heart; and serves on speakers’ bureaus for Boehringer-Ingelheim, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, and Genentech; and receives research support from diaDexus, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, and the NIH/NINDS (# R01 NS050724 [PI], #NS048134 [PI], # P50 NS049060 [Project PI], # R37 NS029993 [Co-PI], #R01 NS55809 [Co-I] and #R01 NS062820 [Co-I]); and has given expert testimony on behalf of Novartis (Zelnorm^® and stroke litigation) and GlaxoSmithKline (Avandia^® and stroke litigation). Mitchell Elkind serves as Resident and Fellow Section Editor for Neurology, for which he receives compensation from the American Academy of Neurology. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.