Circulating Inflammatory Markers in COVID-19-Related Ischemic Stroke: A Multicenter Retrospective Analysis

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes severe respiratory illness and is involved in ischemic stroke. Aimed to investigate the inflammatory markers and possible prognosis of COVID-19-related ischemic stroke in a special outbreak period after lifting of COVID-19 control measures in China, we conducted a multicenter retrospective analysis in southern China at three centers in Shenzhen. We included patients diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack after infection with COVID-19 as the COVID-19-related ischemic stroke group and those only diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack as the control group. In this study, the proportion of female patients, admission heart rate, and comorbid coronary heart disease and the proportion of cryptogenic stroke were higher, while the history of prior stroke was lower in the COVID-19-related ischemic stroke group. The COVID-19-related ischemic stroke group also exhibited elevated levels of monocytes, fibrinogen, alanine aminotransferase, direct bilirubin, monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR) but decreased levels of lymphocytes, albumin, and high-density lipoprotein. However, there were no statistically significant differences in the modified Rankin scale (mRS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and mortality rate between the two groups at discharge. Our study is the first to show the alteration in inflammatory markers but no difference in discharge prognosis between the non-COVID-19 and the COVID-19-related ischemic stroke patients, during China’s COVID-19 relaxation period.