Predictive value of interleukin-6 combined with serum neuron-specific enolase on the prognosis of acute ischemic stroke

Objective: To explore the prognostic value of interleukin-6 (IL-6) combined with serum neuron specific enolase (NSE) in arterial atherosclerotic ischemic stroke. Methods: 116 patients with arterial atherosclerotic ischemic stroke admitted to the emergency ward of our Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. According to the score of modified Rankin scale (mRS) at 90 days after discharge, the patients were divided into the poor prognosis group (mRS > 2, n = 32) and the good prognosis group (mRS <= 2, n = 84). Activities of Daily Living (ADL) was used to evaluate the level of independence in activities of daily living after treatment. Results: The NIHSS score (14.91 +/- 5.20 vs. 9.43 +/- 4.30, P < 0.001), IL-6 (11.30 +/- 3.11 vs. 6.75 +/- 1.28, P < 0.001) and NSE levels (12.47 +/- 4.69 vs. 6.42 +/- 1.32, P<0.001) in poor prognosis group were higher than those in the good prognosis group. At 90 days post-discharge, 100 % of the good prognosis group had ADL scores over 60, while in the poor prognosis group, 46.88 % scored 40-60, 40.63 % scored 20-40, 9.38 % scored under 20, and 3.13 % died. The AUC of NSE was 0.906 (95 % CI: 0.847-0.965, P < 0.001), the best cut-off value was 7.445 ng/mL, and the sensitivity and specificity were 75.0 % and 82.1 %, respectively. The AUC for IL-6 combined with NSE increased to 0.965 (95 %CI: 0.934-0.997, P < 0.001), and the sensitivity and specificity increased to 80.2 % and 92.9 %, respectively. Conclusion: IL-6 >= 6.805 pg/mL and NSE >= 7.445 ng/mL were independently associated with poor prognosis in patients with AIS, and the combined testing of the two indicators had a higher predictive value. These results suggested that the combined assay of IL-6 and NSE could be a novel marker for predicting poor prognosis in AIS.