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Serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in ischemic stroke patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case–control studies

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Abstract

Serum VEGF level is regarded to be a biomarker for the diagnosis of stroke. Even though there have been published plethora of original articles describing higher blood VEGF concentrations since the 1970s, however, there is no any meta-analysis report for serum VEGF levels in the field of evidence-based medicine yet. A systematic review was performed by searching the online biomedical databases including retrieving 14 case–control studies including within-article subgroups after fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria without the beginning date restriction, until 2020 for ischemic stroke patients. The Q quantity and I2% statistic index showed a high heterogeneity (84.895 and 84.687, respectively) and the random-effects model of meta-analysis was applied for further analyses. The meta-analysis on a total number of 769 stroke subjects and 621 controls found that the weighted pooled SMD for overall serum VEGF levels on different days of testing was 1.92 (95% CI, − 4.059–0.219, p value = 0.079) and the pooled SMD for overall serum VEGF levels on day 1 of testing was − 1.083 (95% CI, − 4.229–2.063, p value = 0.500). The meta-regression results demonstrated that different days of testing do not significantly affect serum VEGF concentrations in ischemic patients and actually their serum levels are time-independent. Based on the recently published studies, this meta-analysis showed that serum VEGF levels were not significantly associated with an ischemic stroke diagnosis. Thus, researchers may concern another ideal serum or cerebrospinal fluid-derived biomarker for stroke diagnosis.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate Ilam University of Medical Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Ali Seidkhani-Nahal & Gholam Basati

  2. Department of Clinical Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Afra Khosravi

  3. Department of Medical Parasitology, Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Asad Mirzaei

  4. Zoonotic Diseases Research Center, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Asad Mirzaei

  5. Student Research Committee, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Milad Abbasi & Ali Noori-Zadeh

  6. Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Ilam University of Medical Sciences, Ilam, Iran

    Ali Noori-Zadeh

Authors
  1. Ali Seidkhani-Nahal
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  2. Afra Khosravi
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  3. Asad Mirzaei
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  4. Gholam Basati
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali Noori-Zadeh.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Ilam University of Medical Sciences (IR.MEDILAM.REC.1398.187).

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Article highlights

• The association between serum VEGF concentrations and ischemic stroke detection was investigated using meta-analysis.

• The included studies (systematic review) were heterogeneous and the random-effects model was applied.

• The pooled SMD for overall serum VEGF levels on different days of testing was 1.92 (95% CI, − 4.059–0.219, p value = 0.079).

• The pooled SMD for overall serum VEGF levels on day 1 of testing was − 1.083 (95% CI, − 4.229–2.063, p value = 0.500).

• Based on the included studies, serum VEGF levels were not significantly associated with an ischemic stroke diagnosis.

• Researchers may concern another ideal serum or cerebrospinal fluid-derived biomarker for the near future.

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Seidkhani-Nahal, A., Khosravi, A., Mirzaei, A. et al. Serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels in ischemic stroke patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case–control studies. Neurol Sci 42, 1811–1820 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04698-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-020-04698-7

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