Background
Blood-based tests for a rapid and valid diagnosis as well as outcome prognosis of acute stroke are desirable. Recently, plasma Aβ40 was suggested as an independent cerebrovascular risk factor candidate.
Conclusion
From these results, we suggest the ratio of plasma Aβ1-38/Aβ1-40 as a possible biomarker for the early diagnosis of acute stroke.
Methods
We investigated eight plasma samples of patients with clinical signs of acute cerebral ischemia for derangements of plasma amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptide patterns as compared to 13 patients with other neuropsychiatric diseases. For the analysis of plasma, we used immunoprecipitation followed by the quantitative Aβ-SDS-PAGE/immunoblot.
Results
The major outcome was a striking decrease of Aβ1-40 in plasma paralleled by an increase in the ratio of Aβ1-38/Aβ1-40 in two patients with acute stroke. Interestingly, these patients had an onset of symptoms within only 2-4 hr before venous puncture and there was a strong correlation of Aβ1-38/Aβ1-40 levels with the time span between onset of symptoms and venous puncture.