Leptin has recently been discussed as a novel
biomarker for the clinical outcome of
critical illness. This study aims to investigate the prognostic value of
leptin with regard to long-term clinical outcomes in patients with
intracerebral hemorrhage. In 50 healthy controls and 92 patients with acute spontaneous
basal ganglia hemorrhage presenting to the emergency department of a large primary care hospital, we measured plasma
leptin levels using an
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay in a blinded fashion. Plasma
leptin levels on admission were considerably higher in patients than healthy controls. A significant correlation emerged between plasma
leptin level and National Institutes of Health
Stroke Scale score. A multivariate analysis identified plasma
leptin level as an independent predictor for 6-month clinical outcomes including 6-month mortality and unfavorable outcome (Modified Rankin Scale score>2). Using receiver operating characteristic curves, we calculated areas under the curve for 6-month clinical outcomes. The predictive performance of
leptin was similar to, but did not obviously improve that of National Institutes of Health
Stroke Scale scores. Thus,
leptin may help in the prediction of 6-month mortality and unfavorable outcome after
intracerebral hemorrhage.