Explore UCD

UCD Home >

A new blood test for inflammation that helps to identify patients who may be at increased risk of future stroke and heart disease

Monday, 25 November, 2024

Congratulations to UCD School of Medicine's Dr John McCabe, Dr Sarah Gorey, Professor Peter Kelly, and all the team involved on their recently published research in the American Heart Association Journal, Stroke, titled, Interleukin-6, C-Reactive Protein, and Recurrence After Stroke: A Time-Course Analysis of Individual-Participant Data. The paper has been published in print today, 25 November 2024.

The research includes contributors from 11 prospective studies and 10,000 patients. 

Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death, with over 100 million people living life after stroke globally. There is an urgent need for new treatments to prevent stroke and to develop new blood tests that will identify who is at greatest risk. In collaboration with 10 academic partners around the world, researchers at UCD have led out on a project involving 10,000 stroke patients to identify a new blood test for inflammation that helps to identify patients who may be at increased risk of future stroke and heart disease. The research was led by Dr John McCabe, Professor Peter Kelly, and Professor Cathal Walsh. 

Dr John McCabe stated, "We hope that our work will pave the way to develop new stroke prevention treatments that lower inflammation in patients after stroke and provide new therapies that are desperately needed." 

Abstract

BACKGROUND:
Inflammation promotes atherogenesis. Randomized controlled trials of anti-inflammatory therapies for prevention after stroke have not yet demonstrated clear benefit. IL-6 (interleukin-6) and hsCRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) are independently associated with major adverse cardiovascular events poststroke and may guide patient selection in future randomized controlled trials. Optimal timing of hsCRP/IL-6 measurement poststroke is unknown, as early blood levels may be confounded by the inflammatory response to brain infarction.

METHODS:
Using individual-participant data from a systematic review, we performed a time-course analysis to investigate the association between hsCRP/IL-6 and recurrent events stratified by timing of sampling. The prespecified coprimary end points after sample measurement were: (1) recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events (first major coronary event, recurrent stroke, or vascular death) and (2) recurrent stroke (ischemic, hemorrhagic, or unspecified). The poststroke dynamics of IL-6/hsCRP were analyzed by plotting their median (interquartile interval) concentrations within each tenth of the sampling timeframe. Acute/postacute phases were defined for each biomarker according to the shape of this relationship.

RESULTS:
There were data for 9798 patients from 11 studies (19 891 person-years follow-up, 10 observational cohorts, and 1 randomized trial). Each marker was measured once. IL-6 was markedly elevated <24 hours poststroke compared with postacute levels (≥24 hours; 11.6 versus 3.02 pg/mL; P<0.001). HsCRP was elevated for 10 days. IL-6 was associated with recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events in the postacute phase (≥24 hours; risk ratio, 1.30 [CI, 1.19–1.41], per unit log eIL-6), but not in the acute phase (<24 hours; risk ratio, 1.10 [CI, 0.98–1.25]; P interaction=0.03). After adjustment for risk factors/medication, the association remained for postacute IL-6 when analyzed per log eunit (risk ratio, 1.16 [CI, 1.05–1.66]) and per quarter increase (risk ratio, 1.55 [CI, 1.19–2.02]; Q4 versus Q1), but not if measured acutely. Similar findings were observed for recurrent stroke. There was no evidence of time-dependent interaction with hsCRP.

CONCLUSIONS:
Timing of sample measurement after stroke modifies the association with recurrent major adverse cardiovascular events for IL-6 but not hsCRP. These data inform future randomized controlled trial designs incorporating biomarker-based selection of patients for anti-inflammatory therapies.

UCD School of Medicine

UCD Health Sciences Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
T: +353 1 716 6603 | E: school.medicine@ucd.ie