Tamer  Belal¹, Mervat Mashaly², Ibrahim E. Elmenshawi¹

Departments of Neurology, Clinical Microbiology Unit¹, Clinical Pathology², Mansoura University; Egypt

Background: Pentraxin-3 is a novel biomarker of inflammation in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases that is not studied well in cerebral stroke. Objective: to assess plasma level of pentraxin-3 in patients with acute cerebral stroke whether hemorrhagic or ischemic. Methods: patients admitted to neurocritical neurology department with acute stroke within 24-48 hours of stroke were recruited and subjected for pentraxin- 3 assay and their clinical data and severity were measured using validated tests. Statistical analyses were performed in the SPSS statistical package programme (version 16, SPSS, Chicago, IL). Results: A hundred and forty acute stroke patients were enrolled. The median of pentraxin-3 was significantly high in both stroke types when compared to control. Patients with hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia have significantly higher pentraxin-3 level. Pentraxin level was significantly correlated with severe stroke and large infarcts. pentraxin-3 was also the only predictor of severe hemorrhagic stroke (NIHSS more than 14) on multivariate regression analysis for severe stroke (Beta=1.59, SE=0.422 &P=0.000). Conclusion: pentraxin-3 level is a novel biomarker for stroke and its severity and correlated with atherosclerosis risk factors and its pathological role in stroke should be more clarified. [Egypt J Neurol Psychiat Neurosurg.  2015; 52(2): 111-117]

 Key Words: Pentraxin 3, stroke, severity