Copeptin: A novel, independent prognostic marker in patients with ischemic stroke

• Published in: Annals of neurology 2009-12, Vol.66 (6), p.799-808
• Main Authors: Katan, Mira, Fluri, Felix, Morgenthaler, Nils G., Schuetz, Philipp, Zweifel, Christian, Bingisser, Roland, Müller, Klaus, Meckel, Stephan, Gass, Achim, Kappos, Ludwig, Steck, Andreas J., Engelter, Stefan T., Müller, Beat, Christ-Crain, Mirjam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Area Under Curve; Biological and medical sciences; Brain Ischemia - complications; Cohort Studies; Female; Glycopeptides - blood; Humans; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Multivariate Analysis; Neurology; Predictive Value of Tests; Retrospective Studies; Severity of Illness Index; Statistics, Nonparametric; Stroke - blood; Stroke - diagnosis; Stroke - etiology; Stroke - mortality; Time Factors; Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system
• ISSN: 0364-5134; 1531-8249
• DOI: 10.1002/ana.21783

Objective Early prediction of outcome in patients with ischemic stroke is important. Vasopressin is a stress hormone. Its production rate is mirrored in circulating levels of copeptin, a fragment of provasopressin. We evaluated the prognostic value of copeptin in acute stroke patients. Methods In a prospective observational study, copeptin was measured using a new sandwich immunoassay on admission in plasma of 362 consecutive patients with an acute ischemic stroke. The prognostic value of copeptin to predict the functional outcome (defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of ≤2 or ≥3), mortality within 90 days, was compared with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score and with other known outcome predictors. Results Patients with an unfavorable outcomes and nonsurvivors had significantly increased copeptin levels on admission (p