Increase of Serum CXCL16 Level Correlates Well to Microembolic Signals in Acute Stroke Patients with Carotid Artery Stenosis

•The increase in CXCL16 levels had a predictive value in acute ischemic stroke.•There were higher serum CXCL16 concentrations in MES positive compared to MES negative patients•Higher level CXCL16 contribute to plaque destabilization in ischemic stroke.

BackgroundThe majority of strokes are combined with the instability of atherosclerotic plaques. Microembolic signals (MES) have been considered as evidence of plaque destabilization. We found that increased CXCL16 correlated to atherosclerotic ischemic stroke. Thus, we explored whether CXCL16 correlates to MES.MethodsThe study recruited 104 controls and 118 patients with acute ischemic stroke that has an ipsilateral carotid artery stenosis of > 50%. The ipsilateral middle cerebral artery of patients was insonated for 60 min using Doppler device within 72 h of their clinical presentation.ResultsWe found that CXCL16 was significantly increased in the stroke patients. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in CXCL16 between the MES-positive and MES-negative patients. Using CXCL16 to distinguish the controls and stroke patients, the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was 0.722; the cut-off value was 2.015 ng/ml. The sensitivity and specificity were 70.5% and 67.9%, respectively. Furthermore, if we used CXCL16 to distinguish the MES-positive and MES-negative patients, the AUC was 0.736; the cut-off value was 2.115 ng/ml. The sensitivity and specificity were 88.5% and 56.5%, respectively.ConclusionsHigher levels CXCL16 may be a biomarker for predicting stroke incidence and might contribute to plaque destabilization.