The Diagnostic Potential of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) in Acute Stroke Patients

Background: Ischaemic stroke (IS) and hemorrhagic stroke (HS) are considered second leading cause of death and causing great disability. Neuroimaging techniques are primarily used to differentiate between them, however they are not available in all centers and can not be used in some patient Aim: Identifying blood biomarkers that could be easily measured and could differentiate between IS and HS. Method: This study was case control study, it was performed on 75 subjects: 50 stroke patients and 25 control subject. Blood samples collected within 24 hours of stroke symptoms. GFAP, IL6, CRP was measured by ELISA technique. Result: This study found that GFAP is significantly higher in stroke patient compared to control group (p < 0.0001). However, no significant difference was observed between IS and HS. In addition, IS and HS showed significantly higher IL-6 levels compared to control (p < 0.0001). Also it was demonstrated highly significant differences in CRP levels among the groups(p < 0.0001). The area under curve of GFAP for discriminating between IS and HS patients were 0.7385, using a cut-off point of (≥235.26pg/ml) GFAP was able to differentiate between IS and HS with 84.62% and 73.08% sensitivity and specificity, respectively. It was demonstrated that there was no correlation between GFAP and IL6 and CRP. Conclusion: GFAP has acceptable differentiation ability to differentiate between IS and HS