Association between blood pressure and c-reactive protein in acute ischemic stroke

Abstract EN

Objective: Although the reason is yet not clear, there is a relationship between high blood pressure, and higher levels of circulating C-reactive protein (CRP) on one hand and poor outcome among patients who suffer from acute stroke on the other hand.

The aim of the study was to estimate the level of C-reactive protein in patient with a first events of acute ischemic stroke within 24 hours after it’s onset and to study it’s association with the blood pressure components.

Methods: Analytic prospective study involving 60 patients with first-ever ischemic stroke in Mosul city.

Clinical data including age, sex, arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cholesterol level, cigarette smoking, coronary heart disease, left ventricular hypertrophy, blood pressure measurement, concomitant treatments and antihypertensive drugs at admission.

A standard 12 lead electrocardiographic tracing and brain computed scan (CT) were done for all the patients.

A sample of blood of about 1 ml was taken from the patient within the first 24 hours of clinical symptoms.

The study criteria exclude those with connective tissue disease, malignant disease, sepsis and chronic infections, as these conditions associated with elevated level of C-reactive protein.

Results: During the 24 hours after the start of the stroke, forty-one (63.3%) patients among the 60 participants of the study have elevated baseline CRP whereas 19 (31.6%) patients showed negative CRP.

An increase in systolic, diastolic, mean blood pressure or pulse pressure was significantly associated with an increase in the odds of having an elevated CRP level, independent of other associated study factors with a p-value of <0.001, 0.001, <0.001 and 0.014 respectively, which is statistically highly significant.

Conclusions: Elevated CRP level is common among patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Also, the high levels of circulated CRP were mainly due to increased blood pressure in the patients under study.

According to these findings, we can conclude that acute hypertension after stroke can have a role as an inflammatory stimulus that leads to ischemic brain inflammation.