Participants
This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03577093). We
recruited 50 patients with acute ischemic stroke of the anterior
circulation from the emergency department of Xuanwu Hospital between
March 2016 and December 2017. Ischemic stroke was diagnosed by two
neurologists based on the patient’s history, laboratory examination,
neurological deficits, and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging
results. We included patients with first-time ischemic stroke with a
National Institute of Health
Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score < 25 points who were admitted
within 6 hours after symptom onset. We excluded patients with a history
of malignant tumour, acute infectious disease, haematologic disease, or
renal or liver failure. Moreover, we included 42 age- and sex-matched
healthy volunteers without central nervous system diseases from the
medical examination centre as the control group.