Serum asprosin levels in patients with acute ischemic stroke

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between serum asprosin and the incidence, severity, etiological subtypes and thrombolysis therapy of acute ischemic stroke (AIS).

Methods: A total of 130 patients with AIS were included; 50 patients matched for age, sex, and vascular risk factors, and 50 healthy subjects matched only for age and sex were used as the control group. The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was used to estimate the severity of stroke. Scores >6 were considered to indicate a moderate-to-severe stroke. The AIS group was divided into 3 etiological subtype groups according to the Toast classification method. The thrombolytic and non-thrombolytic groups were divided according to whether emergency thrombolytic treatment was performed.

Results: The asprosin level was significantly higher in the AIS group than in the control group (p<0.001). Further, the asprosin level was higher in the moderate-to-severe stroke group than in the minor stroke group (p<0.001). Logistic regression analysis showed that asprosin was an independent risk factor for AIS and AIS severity. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of serum asprosin for predicting AIS and moderate-to-severe stroke were 0.671 (95% confidence interval: 0.587–0.755; p<0.001) and 0.778 (95% confidence interval: 0.698–0.858; p<0.001), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in serum asprosin levels in the etiological subtype of AIS and thrombolytic therapy or not.

Conclusion: Serum asprosin levels are positively associated with the incidence and severity of AIS and can be used as biomarkers for predicting the occurrence of AIS. Serum asproisn levels may not be used to differentiate between different etiologic subtypes of acute ischemic cerebral infarction and thrombolytic therapy or not.