Serial measurement of serum basic fibroblast growth factor in patients with acute cerebral infarction

Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) has been reported to be involved in the pathophysiological changes following cerebral infarction. Basic fibroblast growth factor is upregulated in the brain and conduces to neuroprotection and angiogenesis in experimental brain ischemia, but the change of serum bFGF in cerebral infarction patients has not been reported. In the present study, we investigated the dynamic changes of serum bFGF in 30 patients with acute cerebral infarction and found that serum bFGF increased significantly after cerebral infarction compared with the control group (p < 0.05). Serum bFGF peaked on day 3 (15.46 ± 5.58 pg/ml; p < 0.01) and remained significantly elevated on day 14 following cerebral infarction. In this study, it was also found that the levels of bFGF with large infarction were higher at each time point than those with moderate or small infarction (p < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the peak level of bFGF and improvement of clinical neurological deficits scored by Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) (r = 0.596; p < 0.05). These results suggest that the serum bFGF level increased significantly after cerebral infarction and the level of serum bFGF could be of value to estimate the infarction size and clinical prognosis.