Immune-inflammatory markers and arterial stiffness indexes in subjects with acute ischemic stroke.
No study has yet evaluated the relationship between arterial stiffness indexes and immuno-inflammatory pathway in patients with an acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular event. The aim of our study was to evaluate in patients with acute ischemic stroke the relationship between immune-inflammatory markers and arterial stiffness indexes.


METHODS
107 subjects with acute ischemic stroke and 107 controls without stroke. We evaluated plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-1beta (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10), E-selectin, P-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), von Willebrand Factor (vWF), tissue plasminogen activator (TPA), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1). Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) and augmentation index (Aix) were evaluated.


RESULTS
There was a significant positive relationship, corrected for age, and gender, between PWV and CRP, TNF-α, IL1β, VWF and IL-6. Aix was significantly related to VWF, IL-6 and TNF-α levels. Among Lacunar subtype PWV was significantly related to CRP, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α and vWF. In LAAS subjects PWV was significantly related to CRP, IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α but not with vWF. Among CEI subtype, PWV was significantly and positively related to CRP, IL-1β, TNF-α and vWF.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings show that both aortic stiffness and wave reflection are related to the degree of systemic inflammation in stroke subjects, suggesting that circulating inflammation mediators can influence the stiffness of vessels distant to those involved in the disease process itself.
Tuttolomondo
Antonino
A
Dipartimento Biomedico di Medicina Interna e Specialistica, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy. brunotutto@unipa.it
Di Raimondo
Domenico
D
Pecoraro
Rosaria
R
Serio
Antonia
A
D'Aguanno
Gisella
G
Pinto
Antonio
A
Licata
Giuseppe
G
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000473:pathology*; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D004617:Embolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007107:Immune System; D007249:Inflammation; D007511:Ischemia / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D014841:von Willebrand Factor / Q000378:metabolism
D016207:Cytokines; D014841:von Willebrand Factor