Pathophysiology and biomarkers in acute ischemic stroke - A review

Stroke is one of the major causes of death and disability, including ischemic stroke, which accounts for 85 - 87 % of cases. Currently, there are few treatment options available for minimizing tissue death following a stroke. Emerging data suggest that biomarkers may help improve current clinical outcome of stroke. As such, there is a pressing need to understand the pathophysiology and to explore effective biomarkers following an ischemic brain event. The pathophysiology of ischemic stroke is complex, and majorly involves excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, apoptosis, etc. Several of the biomarkers are related to these pathophysiologic mechanisms and they may have applications in stroke prediction, diagnosis, assessment, prognosis or treatment. In this review, we summarized the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke and some related biomarkers are examined.