The association between high-sensitivity C-reactive protein at admission and progressive motor deficits in patients with penetrating artery infarctions

BACKGROUND: A fraction of patients with penetrating artery infarction (PAI) experience progressive motor deficit deterioration (PMD). We sought to investigate the role of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) at admission in predicting PMD. METHODS: From January 2015 to September 2018, consecutive patients with PAI from three centers were prospectively enrolled in this study. PMD was defined as worsening of motor function score by ≥1 point on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale during the first 5 days after admission. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to explore the relationship between hs-CRP and PMD in patients with PAI. We also performed receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and constructed a nomogram to assess the overall discriminative ability of hs-CRP in predicting PMD. RESULTS: We ultimately included 544 patients (mean age, 65.4 ± 11.8 years). A total of 85 (15.6%) patients were identified to have PMD. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that hs-CRP was independently associated with PMD (P = 0.001). The optimal cutoff value for hs-CRP as a predictor for PMD was 3.48 mg/L, with a sensitivity of 73.64% and a specificity of 82.35% (area under curve, 0.792). Moreover, the nomogram we constructed indicated that higher level of hs-CRP was an indicator of PMD (c-index = 0.780, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggested that hs-CRP might be a useful biomarker for predicting the risk of PMD in patients with PAI.