Association of Serum Bilirubin with Acute Ischemic Stroke – An Observational Study

Abstract

Introduction: Stroke is a common cause of mortality and morbidity and has an increasing prevalence across the world.1 Bilirubin is now being considered an antioxidant which increases in response to diseases associated with increased oxidative stress. Hence the present observational study was undertaken to assess the bilirubin levels with the outcome of acute ischemic stroke. Methods: This observational study was conducted from January 2018 to December 2018 on 64 ischemic stroke patients admitted at KLE’S Dr. Prabhakar kore hospital at Belagavi, Karnataka. All adult patients above 18 years of age presenting with cerebrovascular accident and proved as ischemic stroke on CT scan or MRI scan were included. The patients were empirically divided into different Groups based on the bilirubin level. They were then analysed with their NIHSS scores for assessing stroke severity. Results: A total of 64 patients were included in the final analysis. The mean total bilirubin level in the patients was 0.68±0.34 mg/dl (mean±SD). 34.3% (22) of ischemic stroke patients in the study had serum total bilirubin levels 0.7 mg/dl or more. Mean NIHSS Score for Group 1(Low) total bilirubin group was 9.37 and for Group 2(High) bilirubin group was 10.9, which was statistically not significant. This indicates that there was no significant correlation between total bilirubin and severity of symptoms at the time of admission.There was no statistically significant correlation between NIHSS and direct bilirubin levels Conclusion: The current study has documented no association between the bilirubin levels and stroke severity and prognosis.