The association between homocysteine and ischemic stroke subtypes in Chinese: A meta-analysis

The findings on the association between elevated plasma homocysteine levels and the risk of the trial of org 10172 in acute stroke treatment (TOAST) of ischemic stroke have been inconsistent in Chinese. So far, there is no meta-analysis about the association between Hcy and the TOAST subtypes of ischemic stroke in Chinese. This study; therefore, aimed to evaluate whether elevated homocysteine levels are associated with the TOAST subtypes of ischemic stroke using a meta-analysis.

A systematic search of electronic databases were conducted for studies reporting homocysteine levels in ischemic stroke and the TOAST of ischemic stroke to April 18, 2018. The data were extracted after the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the data were analyzed using Stata software version 9.0 (Stata Corp LP, College Station, TX). The standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to compare continuous variables.

Thirteen studies comprising 3114 participants (2243 patients and 871controls) met the eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis revealed that the ischemic stroke group had significantly higher levels of homocysteine than controls (SMD = 1.15, 95% CI = 0.85-1.45, P < .05). The subgroup analyses suggested that the groups of patients with large-artery atherosclerosis, small-vessel occlusion, cardioembolism, stroke of other determined etiology and stroke of undetermined etiology had significantly higher levels of homocysteine compared to those in the control group (large-artery atherosclerosis: SMD = 2.12, 95% CI = 1.40-2.84, P < .05; small-vessel occlusion: SMD = 1.10, 95% CI = 0.72-1.48, P < .05; CE: SMD = 1.17, 95% CI = 0.64-1.71, P < .05; stroke of other determined etiology: SMD = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.53-1.24, P < .05; stroke of undetermined etiology: SMD = 1.50, 95% CI = 0.66-2.33, P < .05, respectively).

This meta-analysis found that ischemic stroke patients and the TOAST of ischemic stroke patients in Chinese had significantly higher homocysteine levels than the controls, suggesting that serum homocysteine levels may be a risk factor for ischemic stroke and the TOAST subtypes of ischemic stroke in Chinese.