Rhythm of plasma endothelins in patients with acute stroke within 24 hours

Suqing YU; Kaiqiu CHU; Yusheng LI; Jianxiang HAN; Lin WANG

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

High incidence rate in the morning and low incidence rate in the evening is the regularity of stroke; however, there are no clear reports on changes of concentration of plasma endothelins and its relationship with onset of cerebral thrombus.

OBJECTIVE:

To investigate dynamic regularity of plasma endothelins in patients with acute cerebral thrombus within 24 hours and its correlation with episode.

DESIGN:

Case-controlled study.

SETTING:

Center of Radio-immunology and Department of Laboratory of Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Qingdao University.

PARTICIPANTS:

Totally 32 patients with cerebral thrombus were selected from Neurological Department of Affiliated Hospital of Medical College of Qingdao University from January 2002 to January 2003. There were 20males and 12 females with mean age of (61.5±4.1) years. Ten patients had history of diabetes mellitus combined with hypertension, 8 had history of hypertension, 1 had history of diabetes mellitus, and 13 did not have history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Another 30 healthy subjects were selected from the same hospital including 13 males and 17 females with the mean age of (58.1±6.25) years. Informed consent was obtained from all subjects.

METHODS:

Radio-immune analysis was used to determine the dynamic changes of plasma-endothelins level in 32 patients with cerebral thrombus and 20 healthy subjects at 2, 8, 14 and 20 o'clock.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

① Plasma-endothelins level of patients in cerebral thrombus group and control group at the four time points within 24 hours; ② Plasma-endothelins level of patients with or without cerebral thrombus at the four time points within 24 hours.

RESULTS:

Totally 32 patients with cerebral thrombus and 30 subjects in control group entered the final analysis. ① Plasma-endothelins level in cerebral thrombus group day and night was higher than that in the control group (t=29.1-30.5, P ＜ 0.001). The level was the lowest [(69.96±3.92) ng/L] at 2 o'clock within 24 hours but the highest at 8 o'clock [(78.55±3.80) ng/L,(t=5.67, P ＜ 0.01)]. ② Levels of endothelins in patients with history of hypertension and cerebral thrombus were obviously higher than those in patients without history of hypertension and cerebral thrombus at 2, 8, 14 and 20 o 'clock within 24 hours [(73.28±7.89), (64.52±5.29) ng/L; (82.39±8.62),(75.81±5.14) ng/L; (81.39±8.62), (70.32±5.97) ng/L; (82.47±5.04),(65.27±5.14) ng/L, (t=2.11-5.17, P ＜ 0.05-0.01)].

CONCLUSION:

Plasma-endothelins level in patients with acute cerebral thrombus has rhythm changes within 24 hours. The changes are high in the morning and low in the evening, and this is accorded with high onset of cerebral thrombus in the morning.