Objective Inflammation response is involved in the whole pathological process of acute cerebral infarction ( ACI) , but few reports are seen on its clinical implication in ACI patients .The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive value of the differential count of leukocytes for stroke severity and early clinical outcomes in the acute phase of cerebral infarction . Methods We collected the clinical and laboratory data of 635 patients diagnosed with ACI within 72 hours of symptom onset and eval-uated the association between the differential count of peripheral blood leukocytes and stroke severity at admission and within 3 days af-ter admission as well as the clinical outcomes at discharge .The neural function impairment scores of the patients were obtained with The NIH Stroke Score ( NIHSS) at admission and on the third day after admission , and the therapeutic results evaluated with the modi-fied Rankin Scale ( mRS) , mRS >2 as poor prognosis .Analyses were performed on the correlation of the differential count of leuko-cytes with NIHSS and mRS scores and its influence on the ACI patients . Results At discharge , the mRS related influencing factors included the total count of leukocytes (OR=1.147, 95% CI:1.038-1.268), count of neutrophil cells (OR=1.227, 95% CI:1.00-1.369 ), count of lymphocytes ( OR =0.508, 95% CI:0.342-0.753), and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (OR=1.150, 95%CI:1.008-1.314).the NIHSSs were correlated with the counts of leucocytes (r=0.078, P=0.024), neutrophil cells (r=0.083, P=0.019), and lymphocytes (r=0.010, P=0.004) at admission, and with the counts of leucocytes ( r =0.238, P <0.001), neutrophil cells (r=0.335, P<0.001), lymphocytes (r=-0.269, P<0.001), and NLR (r=0.423, P<0.001) on the third day after admission. Conclusion In the acute phase of cer-ebral infarction , the differential count of leukocytes and NLR are valuable for predicting the severity of neurologic impairment and early poor functional outcome .

Objective Ischemic stroke with elevated serum immunoglobulin E ( IgE) in some young patients is regarded as cerebral vasculitis clinically though without sufficient pathological evidence .This study was to investigate the characteristics of vascular lesions in these patients by temporal artery biopsy . Methods We performed histopathologic examinations on the temporal arteries of 32 young ischemic stroke patients with unknown etiology , 16 with normal and the other 16 with elevated serum IgE .We observed inflammatory cells infiltration and mast cells by HE staining and toluidine blue stai-ning respectively and determined the expressions of matrix metalloproteinase -9 (MMP-9), monocyte chemotaxis protein -1 (MCP-1) and serum IgE by immunohistochemistry . Results Compared with the patients with normal IgE , those of the elevated IgE group showed a significantly higher rate of inflammatory cells infiltration (12.5%vs 62.5%, P<0.01), with 1 case of focal necrosis and fi-brinous exudation in the adventitia in the latter group .The average optical density ( OD) of monocyte chemotaxis protein-1 ( MCP-1) in the temporal artery was also dramatically higher in the elevated IgE group than in the normal controls ([9.25 ±5.79] ×10 -5 vs [4.41 ±2.87] ×10 -5, P<0.01).The average OD of matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP-9) and intima-media thickness were both increased in the elevated IgE group ([32.79 ±21.38] ×10 -4 and [0.25 ±0.06] mm) but showed no statistically significant differ-ence from those in the normal IgE group ([25.23 ±12.78] ×10 -4 and [0.22 ±0.06] mm) (both P>0.05).Nor was any signifi-cant difference observed in the number of the mast cells between the normal and elevated IgE groups (2.8 ±1.5 vs 3.6 ±2.3, P>0.05). Conclusion The infiltration and necrosis of inflammatory cells and fibrin exudation in the temporal artery of the young pa-tient with elevated serum IgE are likely to be the manifestations of vasculitis , and MCP-1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of the disease.