Stroke has characteristics of high incidence, disability, mortality and recurrence rates. Ischemic stroke (IS) is the most prevalent type of stroke. Early management of risk factors associated with IS, such as cholesterol level, has a beneficial impact on improving long-term prognosis. Proprotein converting enzyme subtilin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) is a circulating enzyme that regulates low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR), and PCSK9 inhibitor can reduce serum low density lipoprotein cholesterol by blocking the PCSK9 binding to LDLR; therefore, PCSK9 inhibitor, as a new type of lipid-lowering drug, shows great potential in IS prevention and treatment. This article summarizes the physiological functions of PCSK9, clinical application of PCSK9 inhibitor and role of PCSK9 inhibitor in IS pathologic, aiming to offer novel suggestions for improving short-term and long-term prognoses of individuals with IS.

Objective To investigate the changes of cognitive impairment with disease progression in patients with minor stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA).Methods Consecutive patients with minor stroke/TIA were enrolled prospectively.Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) was used to conduct the cognitive function assessment within 7 d of the onset (baseline),at 1 and 3 months,respectively.Compared with the baseline,the total scores of MoCA in patients increased by ≥2 at 3 months were cognitive function improvement and increased <2 were no cognitive function improvement.Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the independent risk factors for no cognitive improvement.ResultsA total of 112 patients with minor stroke/TIA were enrolled in the study,including 63 patients (56.2%) with TIA and 49 (43.8%) with minor stroke.At baseline,1 month,and 3 months,77 (68.8%),72 (64.3%) and 60 (53.6%) patients had cognitive impairment.At 3 months after the onset,the cognitive function of 25 patients (22.3%) were improved,in which 19 (76.0%) and 6 (24.0%) patients had TIA/minor stroke respectively;87 (77.7%) did not have any improvement.Compared with the improvement group,the level of education was significantly lower (3.29±3.48 years vs.5.63±4.26 years;t=2.814,P=0.006),the level of glycosylated hemoglobin was significantly higher (6.35%±1.26% vs.7.21%±1.26%;t=-3.088,P=0.003) in the no improvement group,and the proportions of patients with minor stroke (49.4% vs.24.0%;χ2=5.101,P=0.024),hypertension (52.9% vs.24.0%;χ2=6.509,P=0.011),hyperlipidemia (51.7% vs.24.0%;χ2=6.019,P=0.014),diabetes (41.4% vs.16.0%;χ2=5.448,P=0.020),and coronary heart disease (32.2% vs.8.0%;χ2=5.792,P=0.016) were significantly higher.Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the level of education (odds ratio [OR] 1.364,95% confidence interval [CI] 1.059-1.756;P=0.016),atrial fibrillation (OR 2.509,95% CI 1.020-6.167;P=0.045),and higher glycosylated hemoglobin level (OR 1.586,95% CI 1.021-2.034;P=0.030) were the independent risk factors for no cognitive function improvement at 3 months after the onset of minor stroke/TIA.As time went on,the MoCA score and visual spatial execution,memory,abstract and directional scores were increased significantly (P<0.001),while there were no significant differences in naming,attention,and language scores.Conclusion s About 2/3 patients with minor stroke/TIA had cognitive impairment,and as time went on,they were improved.The lower education level,atrial fibrillation and higher baseline glycated hemoglobin were the independent risk factors for affecting no cognitive impairment improvement after monor stroke/TIA.

Objective To investigate the incidence,characteristics and risk factors of cognitive impairment in patients with transient ischemic attack(TI A) or minor stroke.Methods Montreal cognitive assessment(MoCA) was carried out in 279 patients with TIA or minor stroke and 150 healthy controls to assess their cognitive function.Results (1) Compared with the healthy controls,the TIA/minor stroke patients scored significantly lower on MoCA total score((23.98±2.55) vs (26.60±0.99),t=12.084,P＜0.01) and subtests including visuoexecutive function((3.68±0.94) vs (4.41±0.64),t=8.483,P＜0.01),digital span ((1.81±0.40) vs (1.95±0.23),t=3.771,P＜0.01),attention((0.84±0.37) vs (0.95±0.23),t=3.357,P＜ 0.01),repetition((1.59±0.62) vs (1.89±0.37),t=5.496,P＜0.01),verbal fluency((0.88±0.33) vs (0.95 ± ±0.23),t=2.286,P＜0.05),abstraction((1.55±0.64) vs (1.91±0.34),t=6.357,P＜0.01) and recall ((2.87±1.13) vs (3.18±0.41),t=3.281,P＜0.01) were significantly decreased.(2) Of 279 TIA/Minor stroke patients,213 (76.3％) suffered from cognitive impairment.The incidence of cognitive impairment was positively correlated with the gender,age,educational level,smoking,course,leukoaraiosis,comorbidities such as hypertension,diabetes mellitus(P＜0.05),and negatively correlated with hyperlipidemia(P＞0.05).Conclusion Extensive impairments of cognitive functions occur along with the incidence of TIA or minor stroke.It is thus suggested that cognitive assessment and interventions may be carried out at an early stage.

Vascular cognitive impairment has been a research hotspot in the field of neurology in recent years.The Montreal Cognitive Assessment is a rapid screening tool for detecting mild cognitive impairment.Now it has been widely used in the evaluation of vascular cognitive impairment.This article reviews the content,features,application status,and development prospects of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

Objective There is little research focusing on the expression and function of bradykinin 1 receptor ( B1R ) and bradykinin 2 receptor ( B2R) after cerebral ischemia/reperfusion on the basis of diabetes .The aim of this study was to compare the ex-pression difference and function change of B 1R and B2R in non-dia-betic and diabetic rats . Methods The cerebral ischemia/reperfu-sion model was established on 41 non-diabetic and type 2 diabetic rats, the weight and the biochemical index were measured on these two types of rats .8 non-diabetic rats and 8 diabetic rats were respec-
tively assigned to two groups according to random number tables:control group and I/R 24 h group, 4 in each group.Real-time PCR was performed to observe the expressions of two receptors at 24 h after reperfusion .Then, 33 non-diabetic rats and 33 diabetic rats were randomly divided into 4 groups respectively, including sham group (n=6), saline group (n=9), B1R antagonist group (n=9) and B2R antagonist group (n=9).At 24 hours after cerebral I/R, neurological deficiency was evaluated by neurological severity scores ( NSS);infarct volume was observed by TTC staining;cell apoptosis was determined by TUNEL staining;neuron degeneration was de-tected by Fluoro-Jade C staining. Results Glucoses of diabetics at 3, 7, 14 d after model establishment [(23.45 ±5.01), (23.71 ±4.87), (22.72 ±4.11) mmol/L] were obviously elevated compared with non-diabetics [(5.77 ±0.75), (6.05 ±0.69), (7.15 ±1.09) mmol/L];blood cholesterin [(4.59 ±3.43) mmol/L] and insulin [(67.26 ±12.02) pmol/L] at 14 d after model establishment were evidently incresaed in comparison to those in non-diabetics [(1.58 ±0.37) mmol/L, (25.34 ±4.88) pmol/L] (P<0.05), while no significant difference was found in the blood triglyceride of diabetics between them (P>0.05).Compared with non-diabetics, diabetics suffered from more apparent up-regulation of B1R mRNA (P<0.01) but relatively less B2R mRNA (P<0.05) at 24 h after I/R.NSS score, infarction volume, damaged and apoptotic cells in B2R antagonis-treated non-diabetic rats at 24 h after I/R conspicuously decreased compared with saline-treated non-daibetic rats.Those indicators in B1R antagonis-treated diabeics were strikingly lessened compared with saline-treated daibetics . Conclusion I/R induced distinct up-regulation of B2R mRNA in non-diabetics and inhibiton of B 2R effectively ameliorated the infarct volume and cell injury after I/R in non-diabetics; I/R induced more notable up-regulation of B1R mRNA in diabetics and B1R antagonist exerted neuroprotective effects instead of B 2R antagonist af-ter I/R in diabetics.

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 .

Patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS) are the potentially high-risk population of stroke.Screening for high-risk patients with ACS and giving them appropriate interventions may have great significance for the prevention of the occurrence of stroke.This article reviews the advances in research of ACS screening in recent years.

Objective To investigate the relationship between isehemic lesion patterns and Suzuki's vessel grades in adult moyamoya disease(MMD).Methods Forty-four consecutive MMD patients,12 with transient ischemic attack(TIA),30 with cerebral infarct(CI)and 2 with combined TIA and CI,who were diagnosed in Jinling hospital between January of 2004 and July of 2009,were retrieved from Nanjing Stroke Registry Program.Ischemic lesions patterns of CI type of MMD were further divided into two paired subgroups including subcortical subgroup versus cortical subgroup, and subgroup of anterior cerebral circulation versus subgroup of posterior cerebral circulation.In addition,the ipsilateral vessel grades of all symptomatic hemispheres were evaluated by Suzuki's 6-grade system according to the results of cerebral angiography of internal carotid arteries.The percentage of number of hemispheres with ischemic events among the paired groups,including TIA group versus CI group,subcortical subgroup versus cortical subgroup,and subgroup of anterior cerebral circulation versus subgroup of posterior cerebral circulation,were analyzed respectively with changes of the Suzuki's grading.Results For above-mentioned each paired groups.the percentage of number of hemispheres with ischemic events was gradually decreased in the former (namely,11/26,2/13,1/8,0 and 0;15/15,9/11,1/7,0 and 0;15/15,10/11,4/7,0 and 0)and increased in the latter(namely,15/26,11/13,7/8,2/2 and 1/1;0,2/11,6/7,2/2 and 1/1;0,1/11,3/7,2/2 and 1/1 ) from grade 2 to grade 6, and the differences were statistically significant (Z = -2. 33 and P =0. 019,Z = - 4.49 and 0. 00, Z = - 3.66 and 0. 01, respectively ). Moreover, the mean value of Suzuki' s grade was lower in the former than the latter for above-mentioned three groups (2. 29 vs 2. 97, 2. 44 vs 4. 18 and 2. 62 vs 4. 13, respectively). Conclusion The ischemic lesion patterns of adult MMD is changing with the change of Suzuki' s vessel grading. The higher the Suzuki' s grade, the greater the likelihood of ischemic lesions involving the cortical areas of posterior cerebral circulation.

Objective:To analyze the independent and comprehensive effects of the sites and mechanisms of middle cerebral artery(MCA)occlusion on cerebral infarction patterns and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS)scores andto investigate the possible related mechanisms and their potential values to the selection of patieras for thrombolysis.Methods:Sixty-six patients with new cerebral infarction caused by MCA occlusion were enrolled.The sites of MCA occlusion were classified into the origin of the MCA(type Ⅰ),the MCA trunk distal to the lenticulostriate arteries(type Ⅱ)and the branches of the MCA(type Ⅲ):the mechanisms of cerebral infection were categorized as thrombotic and embolic.Cerebral infarction lesion patterns were determined according to diffusion-weighted image(DWI).NIHSS scores were evaluated within 24 hours after stroke onset.The independent and comprehensive effects of the sites and mechanisms of MCA occlusion on cerebral infarction lesion patterns and the NIHSS were analyzed.Results:Cerebral infarction involved a larger range and NIHSS scores were higher in patients with occlusion at the origin of MCA and embolic occlusion of the MCA trunk distal to the lenticulostriate arteries.The analysis of the combination of the sites and mechanisms of occlusion could conduct further stratification for patients with cerebral infarction caused by MCA occlusion compared with univariate analysis.Conclusion:The analysis of the combination of the sites and mechanisms of occlusion better stratifies patients with cerebral infarction caused by MCA occlusion.It may be help to select patients for thrombolytic therapy.