our study, the
ferritin level was found to be significantly higher in the
COVID-19–positive AIS group compared with the negative group, and it
was found to be associated with mortality in the COVID-19–positive
group. According to the ROC curve analysis, the best cut-off point for
ferritin was 111 ng/mL, the sensitivity was 83.72% and the specificity
was 77.78%.
In a multivariate analysis of a retrospective series of 440 patients
with severe COVID-19, age, prolongation of prothrombin time, increased
D-dimer, and thrombocytopenia were found to be associated with mortality
(30). In our study, mortality was found to be associated with increased
D-dimer levels, ferritin levels and thrombocytopenia in the AIS group
with COVID-19 (p=0.027, p=0.034, p=0.015). With these findings, it can
be thought that regular platelet counts and D-dimer level observations
can be planned to monitor the level of coagulopathy and disease
severity.
The single-center nature of this study caused some limitations such as
the limited number of patients, the retrospective analysis, not being
able to perform advanced etiologic investigations in some patients with
AIS and COVID-19, not including hemorrhagic strokes, and not being able
to perform advanced laboratory investigations such as measuring
antiphospholipid antibody levels and interleukin levels. The authors
think that more data are needed in this area to determine the
contribution of the processes involved in the pathogenesis of COVID-19
and stroke, and multicenter clinical studies with a higher number of
patients are needed.