26/06/2012

The Research Group of Neurovascular Disease at Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) worked on the study for the detection and confirmation of a useful biomarker to predict recurrence in patients who have had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), and to predict response to treatment of stroke with fibrinolysis. The work of this group concludes and confirms the utility of phospholipase A (2) (Lp-PLA (2)) as a novel biomarker of these cerebrovascular diseases. It has been observed that there are significant changes in the concentrations of Lp-Plan2 following a stroke, and this phospholipase predicts the possibility for suffering another. This biomarker also predicts response to intravenous fibrinolytic therapy determined by the recanalization of the occluded artery.This biomarker, studied in great detail by this group, gives much information about the disease process the patient is suffering. On the one hand, they have begun to study the concentrations and activity of Lp-PLA (2) in patients who have suffered a first TIA (transient ischemic attack). In this situation, patients present symptoms resulting from stroke, of very short duration that autoreverse, but which in no case can be considered less serious, since the risk of early recurrence is very high. The levels of Lp-PLA (2) in these cases are already high. "These high levels of the marker were related to certain risk factors and the study determines, for example, the relationship between high levels of Lp-PLA (2) and the presence of intracranial atherosclerotic plaques, often unstable and which can cause stroke", says Dr. Joan Montaner, head of this study at VHIR.