Twenty-four-hour endothelin-1 secretory pattern in stroke patients.
Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is a potent and long-acting vasoconstrictor peptide, which may play a role in the pathophysiology of a number of diseases. Controversial data exist on its role in human ischemic stroke. In order to ascertain whether changes in ET-1 plasma levels occur in ischemic stroke, plasma ET-1 levels and mean arterial pressure were determined in 15 patients at their first ischemic cerebral infarction and in 15 control subjects, over a 24-hour period. In stroke patients, mean 24-hour plasma ET-1 levels (4.9+/-0.5 ng/L) were higher (P< 0.05) than in control subjects (3.2+/-0.3 ng/L), and correlated with the mean size of the lesion, but not with the severity score of the neurological deficit. These results support the hypothesis that ET-1 levels reflect an indicator function for the amount of damaged cerebral tissue rather than a pathophysiological role.
Franceschini
R
R
Department of Internal Medicine, Genoa, Italy. franrob@unige.it
Gandolfo
C
C
Cataldi
A
A
Del Sette
M
M
Rolandi
A
A
Corsini
G
G
Rolandi
E
E
Barreca
T
T
D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000187:drug effects; D019332:Endothelin-1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D020521:Stroke / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000503:physiopathology
D019332:Endothelin-1