Deans' stroke musings: Association between lactate-to-albumin ratio and in-hospital mortality in ICU patients with acute ischemic stroke: a retrospective cohort study

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, September 21, 2026

Association between lactate-to-albumin ratio and in-hospital mortality in ICU patients with acute ischemic stroke: a retrospective cohort study

And you think predicting mortality is more important than research to prevent mortality? YOU'RE FIRED!

Association between lactate-to-albumin ratio and in-hospital mortality in ICU patients with acute ischemic stroke: a retrospective cohort study

Xiaocui Yang
Y
Yue Zhang
M
Min Ou
Yiwen Liu *

West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

Abstract

Background:

Early risk stratification is critical for critically ill patients with ischemic stroke. The prognostic value of the lactate-to-albumin ratio (LAR) remains unclear in this population.

Methods:

This single-center retrospective cohort study enrolled adult ICU patients with ischemic stroke from West China Hospital. LAR was calculated using the first lactate and albumin values on ICU admission. Log-transformed LAR was adopted as the main exposure, and the primary outcome was in-hospital mortality. Multivariable logistic regression, ROC analysis, quartile stratification, subgroup, and sensitivity analyses were performed among 749 patients with complete exposure and outcome data, of whom 576 had complete covariate data and comprised the primary multivariable regression cohort.

Results:

A total of 749 patients were included, with an in-hospital mortality rate of 30.7%. In complete-case multivariable analysis (N = 576; deaths = 172), log-transformed LAR was independently associated with in-hospital mortality (OR = 1.44, 95%CI: 1.09–1.91, p = 0.010) after full adjustment. Each two-fold increase in LAR was associated with a 29% increase in mortality odds. The highest LAR quartile had a significantly higher mortality risk than the lowest quartile (OR = 2.16, 95%CI: 1.21–3.92). LAR showed modest predictive ability (AUC = 0.628). When modeled as a raw continuous LAR, the direction of association remained consistent but did not reach conventional statistical significance (OR 1.23; 95% CI 0.97–1.56; p = 0.083). Moreover, no significant interaction or non-linearity was found.

Conclusion:

Elevated LAR is independently linked to higher in-hospital mortality among critically ill ischemic stroke patients. It may serve as a simple adjunctive marker for early risk stratification.