The Diagnostic Value of Whole Blood lncRNA NR_120420 for Acute Ischemic Stroke

Current clinical practice based on CT or multimodal images to diagnose ischemic stroke always led to substantial treatment delay. We perform this study to explore possible circulating lncRNA biomarker to help promptly diagnose the disease.

We used microarray to identify the differentially expressed lncRNAs in the peripheral whole blood between AIS patients and controls and verified the results by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to determinate the lncRNAs independently associated with AIS occurrence. The ROC curve was used to detect the diagnostic accuracy of candidate lncRNAs in AIS and AIS subtypes, which was classified according to the Oxford Community Stroke Project (OCSP) criteria.

The microarray analysis screened out 5686 differentially expressed lncRNAs. Among the nine selected lncRNAs verified by qPCR, NR_120420 (OR 1.29, 95% CI 1.02-1.65, P = 0.037) was found independently associated with AIS after balancing patient baseline characteristics. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis concerning NR_120420 in total anterior circulation infarction subgroup showed that the area under the curve was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.73-0.99, P = 0.003), and at the optimal cutoff point of 1.93, the sensitivity and specificity reached 85.7% and 84.6%, respectively.

Our study indicated that NR_120420 could predict the total anterior circulation infarction with high sensitivity and specificity and could be potentially used as a biomarker for total anterior circulation infarction in AIS patients.