Abstract:
Background: Cerebrovascular stroke is a costly disease. Cystatin C is an important biomarker for acute ischemic stroke due to the background of accumulating evidence indicating a link between vascular disease of the kidney and brain.
Aim: We investigated the association of serum cystatin C levels with radiological findings of first ever acute ischemic stroke.
Patients and methods: We included in this prospective cohort study 58 adult patients with first ever acute cerebrovascular ischemic stroke of not more than 72 hours duration with normal kidney functions (26 males and 32 females with age ranged from 33 to 90 years). Serum cystatin C level was measured by enzyme-linked immune-sorbent assay ( ELISA) . All patients were subjected to brain computed tomography (CT) scan to confirm the diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke and it was repeated after 48 hours.
Results: We found statistically significant positive correlation between cystatin C serum level and early signs of middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction and size of infarction.
Conclusion: There is positive correlation between serum cystatin C level and size of infarction in acute ischemic stroke.