AUTHOR=Hotter Benjamin , Hoffmann Sarah , Ulm Lena , Meisel Christian , Fiebach Jochen B. , Meisel Andreas 

TITLE=IL-6 Plasma Levels Correlate With Cerebral Perfusion Deficits and Infarct Sizes in Stroke Patients Without Associated Infections

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neurology

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neurology/articles/10.3389/fneur.2019.00083

DOI=10.3389/fneur.2019.00083

ISSN=1664-2295

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Introduction:</bold> We aimed to investigate several blood-based biomarkers related to inflammation, immunity, and stress response in a cohort of patients without stroke-associated infections regarding their predictive abilities for functional outcome and explore whether they correlate with MRI markers, such as infarct size or location.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> We combined the clinical and radiological data of patients participating in two observational acute stroke cohorts: the PREDICT and 1000Plus studies. The following blood-based biomarkers were measured in these patients: monocytic HLA-DR, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, LBP, MRproANP, MRproADM, CTproET, Copeptin, and PCT. Multiparametric stroke MRI was performed including T2<sup>*</sup>, DWI, FLAIR, TOF-MRA, and perfusion imaging. Standard descriptive sum statistics were used to describe the sample. Associations were analyzed using Fischer's exact test, independent samples <italic>t-</italic>test and Spearmans correlation, where appropriate.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> Demographics and stroke characteristics were as follows: 94 patients without infections, mean age 68 years (SD 10.5), 32.2% of subjects were female, median NIHSS score at admission 3 (IQR 2–5), median mRS 3 months after stroke 1 (IQR 0–2), mean volume of DWI lesion at admission 5.7 ml (SD 12.8), mean FLAIR final infarct volume 10 ml (SD 14.9), cortical affection in 61% of infarctions. Acute DWI lesion volume on admission MRI was moderately correlated to admission/maximum IL-6 as well as maximum LBP. Extent of perfusion deficit and mismatch were moderately correlated to admission/maximum IL-6 levels. Final lesion volume on FLAIR was moderately correlated to admission IL-6 levels.</p><p><bold>Conclusion:</bold> We found IL-6 to be associated with several parameters from acute stroke MRI (acute DWI lesion, perfusion deficit, final infarct size, and affection of cortex) in a cohort of patients not influenced by infections.</p><p><bold>Clinical Trial Registration:</bold><ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">www.ClinicalTrials.gov</ext-link>, identifiers NCT01079728 and NCT00715533</p>