Estradiol levels predict short-term adverse health outcomes in postmenopausal acute stroke women
European Journal of Neurology, 05/09/2012
Pappa T et al. – The authors identified an independent association of endogenous estradiol levels with stroke severity and short–term mortality and outcome. These findings suggest challenging the role of estradiol as a neuroprotective agent.
Methods- During a time–period of 2 years, the authors prospectively studied 302 postmenopausal female patients hospitalized for an acute stroke in two tertiary hospitals.
- The authors addressed the question whether endogenous estradiol is associated with stroke severity on admission and functional outcome 1 month after stroke, as assessed by the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and modified Rankin Scale (mRS), respectively.
- Estradiol levels were significantly related to stroke severity on admission, as expressed by NIHSS, even after correcting for confounding factors in the multivariate analysis (beta 0.353, P < 0.001).
- Estradiol was an independent determinant of 1–month mortality and adverse functional outcome (mRS ≥4), [odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI): 3.341 (1.617–6.902), P = 0.001 and 2.277 (1.273–4.074), P = 0.006, respectively].
