Alteration of inflammatory factors between chronic stroke and post‐stroke dementia: A cross‐sectional study: Biomarkers (non‐neuroimaging) / plasma/serum/urine biomarkers

Background Inflammation may play a role in the pathological processes of stroke and post‐stroke dementia. However, there has not been compared and discussed upon the alterations among the plasma inflammatory factors from stroke to post‐stroke dementia. Method In this study, an age‐ and gender‐matched normal controls and ischemic stroke patients with (PSD) or without (PSNoD) dementia had been recruited. The ischemic stroke patients had further examined the 30‐day Modified Rankin scale (MRS), stroke infarction subtypes, anti‐cholinergic treatment status and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR). Levels of plasma inflammatory factors epidermal growth factor (EGF), growth‐regulated oncogene (GRO), soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), Interleukin 7 (IL‐7) and Interleukin 4 (IL‐4) were measured by Milliplex map human cytokine/chemokine magnetic bead panel assay. The butylcholinesterase (BChE) activity and plasma D‐amino acid oxidase (DAO) were also included in these analyses due to our previous published report [1, 2]. Result The ischemic stroke patients showed significantly higher percentage of hypertension (HTN), Diabetes mellitus (DM) and self‐report smoking than normal controls ( p <0.01). Normal controls had significant higher plasma EGF, GRO, sCD40L, IL‐7, but lower plasma DAO levels than the ischemic stroke patients ( p <0.003). In comparisons between the PSD and PSNoD patients, the PSD showed significantly higher 30‐day MRS, CDR, percentage of anti‐cholinergic treatment than the PSNoD ( p <0.014) after adjust with age. The plasma BChE activity showed lower levels in PSD than PSNoD ( p =0.0002) after adjust with age. Conclusion The inflammatory factors of EGF, GRO, sCD40L, IL‐7 and plasma DAO levels were mainly associated with ischemic stroke. The BChE activity may be a better indicator for the post‐stroke dementia. References: (1) Chen, Y.‐C., et al., Serum level and activity of butylcholinesterase: A biomarker for post‐stroke dementia . Journal of clinical medicine, 2019. 8(11): p. 1778. (2) Chen, Y.‐C., et al., A Post‐hoc Study of D‐amino Acid Oxidase in Blood as an Indicator of Post‐stroke Dementia . Frontiers in neurology, 2019. 10: p. 402.