Serum ferritin level as a severity marker in patients with ischemic stroke using modified Rankin scale

Abstract

Background: Stroke is an acute vascular event that leads to increased mortality and morbidity and has a poor quality of life due to the disability it produces. The high serum ferritin levels in patients with stroke are a risk factor for poor outcomes, suggesting that increased body iron stores before the onset of a stroke may aggravate the cytotoxicity of brain ischemia. Aim and Objectives: To know the association between serum ferritin levels and ischemic stroke severity using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Material and Methods: In a cross-sectional study, we assessed serum ferritin and correlated it to stroke severity using the mRS in patients admitted with history, clinical features and radiological evidence for ischemic stroke. Results: In our study, the majority (26.5%) were between 70 to 79 years of age. The oldest patient was a 97-year-old male, and we had male predominance (54.4%). The most common stroke territory was the middle cerebral artery territory (58%). The mRS was applied to assess stroke severity in all the patients presenting within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms and correlated with serum ferritin level. The results were plotted using a scatter diagram, which showed ferritin was in an increasing trend as the mRS grading was increasing, which signifies the higher the ferritin, more the severity of the stroke with a significant p-value. Conclusion: The present study illustrated that the higher the serum ferritin level, more severe was the disability of stroke. It was concluded that evaluating serum ferritin levels in patients presenting with ischemic stroke at admission will help predict the severity.

Keywords

• ischemic stroke
• mrs
• serum ferritin