Elevated serum pentraxin 3 levels might predict the diagnosis of branch atheromatous disease at a very early stage.

Abstract

Branch atheromatous disease (BAD) is one of the stroke subtypes caused by occlusion at the origin of a deep penetrating artery of the brain and is associated with a microatheroma or a junctional plaque. Patients with BAD often develop progressive worsening of neurologic deficits, although these patients often present minor stroke with clinical characteristics of lacunar syndrome at the onset. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is known to be a key molecule involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Although a high level of serum PTX3 is observed in patients with acute coronary syndrome, there are no reports on PTX3 levels in patients with BAD. This study aimed to investigate whether serum PTX3 levels can distinguish BAD from other stroke subtypes. We investigated 93 patients with ischaemic stroke. Serum PTX3 levels on admission were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in patients with BAD and those with other stroke subtypes (each n≥20). The median PTX3 levels in patients with BAD (4840pg/mL) were higher than those with other subtypes of stroke (3397pg/mL in lacunar stroke, 1298pg/mL in large-artery atherosclerosis, 1470pg/mL in cardioaortic embolism and 1006pg/mL in control) (all P<0.01). Our results suggest that elevated serum PTX3 levels might predict the diagnosis of BAD at a very early stage.