Acute ischaemic stroke increases the erythrocyte sedimentation rate, which correlates with early brain damage

The acute phase response follows tissue injury and contributes to its exacerbation with pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic mechanisms. Acute phase proteins promote erythrocyte aggregation and falling, with the result that the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) is a measure of the acute phase response. As the acute phase response accompanies ischaemic brain damage, we studied ESR values in patients within the first 24 hours of ischaemic stroke and evaluated whether these values may be related to the volume of anatomically relevant single hemispheric brain computed tomography (CT) areas observed at the same period, indicating early stroke-related cerebral changes. We observed an increase in ESR in stroke patients and a positive correlation between the ESR values and the volume of early brain CT hypodense areas. The results suggest that elevation in ESR values is observed soon after a stroke and may reflect the relationship between the degree of acute phase response in the early phase of ischaemic stroke and the extent of local brain damage.