Aims: To find the correlation between plasma D-dimer levels after stroke with different etiologies, severity of the stroke and to uncover whether plasma D-dimer levels may be used as a prognostic factor of stroke complication.
Background: D-dimer is a product of fibrin degradation and it is elevated in systemic vascular events. The association between plasma D-dimer levels and stroke remain uncertain.
Methods: A total of 96 acute stroke patients were enrolled in this study. Plasma levels of D-dimer were measured on admission, 24 hours, a week and 3 months after stroke onset. The clinical evaluation, type of event and severity of stroke were measured by using the NIHS Scale and brain CT on admission.
Results: Average levels of D-dimer were higher after stroke, returning to normal range after 3 months. D-dimer levels were highest at intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and lowest at normal brain CT on admission (P=0.021 on admission, P=0.002 after 24 hours, P=0.018 after a week). The percent of patients with high plasma D-dimer levels on admission was higher at ICH compared to brain infarction and to TIA. There is a correlation (p=0.039) between the severity of the stroke and the percent of patients with high plasma D-dimer levels and a correlation (P=0.017) between mortality and the percent of patients with high plasma D-dimer levels at admission.
Conclusions: An association between plasma D-dimer levels and stroke etiology, size of the damaged area and severity of acute stroke was found. High levels of plasma D-dimer following acute stroke is associated with early complications and high mortality.