Value of biomarker-based diagnostic test in differential diagnosis of hemorrhagic-ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Stroke is an emergency which threatens life and the third leading cause of death in developed countries and the leading cause of long-term disability. By means of this study, it was aimed to evaluate the position of triage stroke panel in differential diagnosis of acute hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke and sub-types of ischemic stroke.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Patients with acute stroke admitted to Emergency Department were prospectively recruited between June 2008-January 2009. BNP, D-dimer, MMP-9, S-100b levels were asseyed. Statistical significance for intergroup differences was assessed by Pearson's chi2 for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney U test or Kruskal-Wallis test for continuous variables.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

A total of 100 consecutive patients with a diagnosis of stroke were evaluated. Of these, 29 (29%) patients had brain hemorrhages on the computed tomography scan performed the Emergency Department, 71 (71%) patients had ischemic stroke. It was observed that the intercept obtained as a result of jointly evaluating BNP, D-dimer, MMP9 and S100b is more important in differential diagnosis (p < 0.005). We suggest that using a combination of plasma biomarkers may be usefull to ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke for differential diagnosis (Tab. 4, Ref. 22).