Acute Routine Leukocyte and Neutrophil Counts Are Predictive of Poststroke Recovery at 3 and 12 Months Poststroke: An Exploratory Study

And just WHY THE FUCK are you predicting recovery rather than producing recovery? Your mentors and senior researchers incompetently didn't tell you that the only goal in stroke is 100% recovery? Current predictions are totally useless since they are based on the 10% full recovery rate. Of course your doctor doesn't bother telling you how fucking bad the failures are in stroke recovery, that might lead to firings.

Predicting to a 10% full recovery rate is the height of stupidity. So first you need to create 100% recovery protocols, THEN you can do predictions. You are doing the order of research wrong, If we had stroke leadership we could fix this problem.

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Vinh A. Nguyen, Sheila G. Crewther, PhD, David W. Howells, PhD, ...

First Published September 17, 2020 Research Article 

https://doi.org/10.1177/1545968320948607

Article information

 

Abstract

 

 

Background and Aims. 

White blood cell (WBC) and neutrophil counts (NC) are common markers of inflammation and neurological stroke damage and could be expected to predict poststroke outcomes.  

Objective. 

The aim of this study was to explore the prognostic value of early poststroke WBC and NC to predict cognition, mood, and disability outcomes at 3 and 12 months poststroke.  

Methods. 

Routine clinical analyses WBC and NC were collected at 3 time points in the first 4 days of hospitalization from 156 acute stroke patients. Correlations using hierarchical or ordinal regressions were explored between acute WBC and NC and functional recovery, depression, and cognition at 3 and 12 months poststroke, after covarying for age and baseline stroke severity.  

Results. 

We found significant increases in NC between <12 hours and 24 to 48 hours time points (P = .05). Hierarchical regressions, covaried for age and baseline stroke severity, found that 24 to 48 hours WBC (P = .05) and NC (P = .04) significantly predicted 3-month cognition scores. Similarly, 24 to 48 hours WBC (P = .05) and NC (P = .02) predicted cognition scores at 12 months. Increases in WBC and NC were predictive of increased cognition scores at both 3 and 12 months (positive recovery) though there were no significant associations between WBC and NC and disability or depression scores.  

Conclusions. 

 Routine acute stroke clinical laboratory tests such as WBC and NC taken between 24 and 48 hours poststroke are predictive of cognition poststroke. It is interpreted that higher rapid immunological activation in the acute phase is an indicator for the trajectory of positive stroke recovery.

Keywords blood biomarkers, poststroke recovery, cognition, white blood cell, neutrophil, leukocyte

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