Clinical usefulness of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and visinin-like protein-1 in early diagnostic tests for acute stroke.

OBJECTIVES: Lack of a rapid biochemical test for acute stroke is a limitation in the diagnosis and management of acute stroke. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of BDNF and VILIP-1 as diagnostic markers in acute ischemic stroke and as predictors of mortality. METHODS: The study included 75 patients with acute ischemic stroke older than 18 years. During the same period, 28 normal controls were recruited from the hospital ED. Blood samples were collected from all patients at admission to determine the levels of VILIP-1 and BDNF. RESULTS: The mean VILIP-1 levels in the study and control groups were 0.547 ±â€¯0.081 and 0.515 ±â€¯0.035 ng/mL, respectively, and the difference was not significant (p = 0.071). The mean BDNF levels in the study and control groups were 3.89 ±â€¯2.05 ng/mL and 14.9 ±â€¯4.7 ng/mL, respectively, and the level was significantly (p < 0.0001) lower in the stroke patients. CONCLUSION: The BDNF level showed a significant ability to discriminate stroke and control patients but did not predict mortality. The VILIP-1 level showed insignificant ability to discriminate stroke patients and again did not predict mortality.