Elevated serum S100B levels indicate a higher risk of haemorrhagic transformation after thrombolytic therapy in acute stroke

Background and purpose: Intracerebral haemorrhage constitutes an often fatal sequela of thrombolytic therapy in patients with ischaemic stroke. Early blood brain barrier (BBB) disruption may play an important role, and the astroglial protein S100B is known to indicate BBB dysfunction. We investigated whether elevated pretreatment serum S100B levels predict haemorrhagic transformation (HT) in thrombolysed stroke patients. Methods: We retrospectively included 275 ischaemic stroke patients (mean age of 69±13 years; 46% female) who had received thrombolytic therapy within six hours of symptom onset. S100B levels wer…