Summary
Increased fibrinogen concentration is a well known phenomenon following acute ischemic
stroke. However, the natural course of this hyperfibrinogenemia is uncertain. We aimed
to clarify whether it is of a transient or more persistent nature in patients who
harbor an underlying morbid biology of atherothrombo-inflammation. Venous blood for
fibrinogen measurements was obtained from the control group participants and from
stroke patients within 24 hours of admission, as well as 12 months following the acute
event. In order to perform a time course analysis, we divided our cohort into tiles
of time from symptoms' onset and compared the fibrinogen concentrations usingANOVA.
Elevated fibrinogen concentrations were found in stroke patients on admission compared
with matched controls (p<0.001).Analysis of variance in the different tertiles of
time from symptoms' onset identified that fibrinogen concentrations were already relatively
high during the initial phase of the event and did not differ significantly between
the tiles (p=0.268). Moreover, when we calculated the absolute differences between
the patients' fibrinogen concentrations and that of the matched controls there was
clearly a minor increment during the time course from symptoms' onset in the stroke
patients group. In conclusion, persistent hyperfibrinogenemia is present in patients
with acute ischemic cerebral events and it might be present during the earlier stages
of the disease as presently shown. Prompt and longterm, rather than short term, interventions
to reduce the concentrations of this protein might therefore be of relevance.
Keywords
Stroke - fibrinogen - inflammation
