Astrocytic brain proteins: structure, function and clinical relevance
The ischemic brain lesions hold the leading position in the structure of cerebrovascular diseases both in Russia and in the whole world, and stroke consequences are the main reason of disability. This fact determines the special significance of early diagnosis of ischemic stroke that will permit to perform reperfusion and improve the functional outcomes. At present the only method of differentiation between ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes is computer or magnetic resonance imaging. These methods are laborious; they need twenty-four hours presence of competent stuff and finally expensive. These disadvantages are absent in the method of assessment of specific biochemical markers of brain damage, notably astrocytic proteins such as protein S100B and glial fibrillary acidic protein. Recently the assessment of these cerebral peptides level in blood has attracted the clinician ’s attention as the method of express-diagnosis of strokes. But undertaken studies are few and investigated groups of patient are insufficient. At the same time the wide application of such laboratory express-tests to the clinical practice may help in differential diagnosis between ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes without use of neuroimaging methods.