Purpose: Stroke-associated infection (SAI) is associated with adverse outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). In this study, we aimed to evaluate the association between neutrophil percentage-to-albumin ratio (NPAR) and SAI occurrence in patients with AIS. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed all AIS patients who were admitted to the Neurology ward of The Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University from November 2018 to October 2020. The relationship between NPAR and SAI was analyzed by multivariable analysis. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to compare the predicted value of albumin, neutrophil percentage, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and NPAR. Results: We included 379 AIS patients out of which 51 (13.5%) developed SAI. The NPAR was independently associated with increased risk of SAI adjusting for confounders [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 10.52; 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.33-33.28; P <0.001]. The optimal cutoff value of NPAR for predicting SAI incidence was 1.64, with sensitivity and specificity of 90.2 and 55.8%, respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) value of NPAR [0.771 (0.725-0.812)] was higher than that of albumin [0.640 (0.590-0.689)], neutrophil percentage [0.747 (0.700-0.790)], and NLR [0.736 (0.689-0.780)], though the statistical significance appeared only between NPAR and albumin. Conclusions: We demonstrated that a higher NPAR could predict the occurrence of SAI. Thus, NPAR might be a more effective biomarker to predict SAI compared with albumin, neutrophil percentage, and NLR.
Keywords: albumin; infection; inflammation; neutrophil; stroke.
Copyright © 2021 Zhang, Wu, Tian, Lyu, Wang and Cao.