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Blood Biomarkers for Stroke Diagnosis and Management

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Abstract

Biomarkers are objective indicators used to assess normal or pathological processes, evaluate responses to treatment and predict outcomes. Many blood biomarkers already guide decision-making in clinical practice. In stroke, the number of candidate biomarkers is constantly increasing. These biomarkers include proteins, ribonucleic acids, lipids or metabolites. Although biomarkers have the potential to improve the diagnosis and the management of patients with stroke, there is currently no marker that has demonstrated sufficient sensitivity, specificity, rapidity, precision, and cost-effectiveness to be used in the routine management of stroke, thus highlighting the need for additional work. A better standardization of clinical, laboratory and statistical procedures between centers is indispensable to optimize biomarker performance. This review focuses on blood biomarkers that have shown promise for translation into clinical practice and describes some newly reported markers that could add to routine stroke care. Avenues for the discovery of new stroke biomarkers and future research are discussed. The description of the biomarkers is organized according to their expected application in clinical practice: diagnosis, treatment decision, and outcome prediction.

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Abbreviations

aHR :

Adjusted hazard ratio

aOR :

Adjusted odds ratio

ADAMTS13 :

A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type-1 motif, member 13

ANP :

Atrial natriuretic peptide

APOA1-UP :

Apolipoprotein A1 unique peptide

BNP :

B-type natriuretic peptide

CDM :

Clinical diffusion mismatch

c-Fn :

Cellular fibronectin

CRP :

C-reactive protein

CT :

Computerized tomography

DHC :

Decompressive hemicraniectomy

END :

Early neurological deterioration

EVT :

Endovascular thrombectomy

FC :

Fold change

GFAP :

Glial fibrillary acid protein

HbA1c :

Glycated hemoglobin

HFABP :

Heart-type fatty acid-binding protein

HR :

Hazard ratio

HT :

Hemorrhagic transformation

ICAM :

Intercellular adhesion molecule

ICH :

Intracerebral hemorrhage

IL-10 :

Interleukin 10

IL-6 :

Interleukin-6

IS :

Ischemic stroke

LAA :

Large artery atherosclerosis

lncRNA :

Long non-coding RNA

Lp-PLA2 :

Lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2

MCA :

Middle cerebral artery

MBL :

Mannose-binding lectin

MMP9 :

Matrix metalloproteinase 9

MiRNA :

MicroRNA

MR-proANP :

Mid-regional pro-atrial natriuretic peptide

MRI :

Magnetic resonance imaging

mRS :

Modified Rankin Scale

MS :

Mass spectrometry

N/A :

Not applicable or not available

NDKA :

Nucleoside diphosphate kinase A

NfL :

Neurofilament light

NMDA :

N-methyl-d-aspartate

NIHSS :

National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale

NSE :

Neuron-specific enolase

NT-proBNP :

N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide

OR :

Odds ratio

PAI-1 :

Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1

PARK7 :

Parkinson disease protein 7

PBP :

Platelet basic protein

RBP4 :

Retinol-binding protein 4

RNA :

Ribonucleic acid

S100B :

Serum calcium-binding protein

Se :

Sensitivity

Sp :

Specificity

TAFI :

Thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor

TIA :

Transient ischemic attack

TNF-α :

Tumor necrosis factor α

tPA :

Tissue plasminogen activator

VCAM :

Vascular cell adhesion molecule

VEGF :

Vascular endothelial growth factor

vWF :

von Willebrand factor

ZFAS1 :

Zinc finger antisense 1

References

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Funding

GCJ receives research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the University Hospital Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Authors

Contributions

JK-T did the literature search and drafted the manuscript. GCJ critically revised the initial draft and all the subsequent versions. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joseph Kamtchum-Tatuene.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This review is based solely on previously published articles from ethically approved studies. The work did not involve human or animal experiments and did not require the collection of new data. Therefore, no ethical approval or consent was required.

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Kamtchum-Tatuene, J., Jickling, G.C. Blood Biomarkers for Stroke Diagnosis and Management. Neuromol Med 21, 344–368 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-019-08530-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-019-08530-0

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