Abstract

Ischemic stroke is a public health problem due to its high morbidity and mortality. Some patients present early neurological deterioration, and may reach coma or death before the first week of illness, despite having a normal initial brain tomography. This is due to cerebral edema due to the inflammatory reaction that occurs within the ischemic lesion. Although we know the proinflammatory cytokines involved in this neurotoxic inflammatory reaction, studies over the last two decades have not demonstrated their usefulness as inflammatory biomarkers because of conflicting results. Recently, promising studies have been published on some leukocyte index of the hemogram as inflammatory biomarkers of evolution in acute ischemic stroke. This scientific essay aims to discuss the most recent scientific literature on the use of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as an biomarker for neurological deterioration in acute ischemic stroke.

Keywords: hemogram; biomarker; coma; stroke.