Reflections on the Clinical Implications of Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein and Neuroglobin in Ischemic Stroke [Response to Letter]

Dear editor

We would like to sincerely thank Cao and Zhang¹ for their valuable comments regarding our paper.²

1. We would like to emphasize that the GFAP and NGB assays performed by us using the ELISA method are, at the current stage of research in the world, a method that is characterized by both sensitivity and specificity. We would like to mention that serum for testing was collected from a clinically selected group of patients with both stroke and the control group. All patients admitted to the hospital were burdened with selected comorbidities that were the basis of the etiology of stroke, of similar age, with the participation of women and men. For this reason, we can state that our results are reliable, and the search for a biomarker in order to implement appropriate diagnostics of stroke studies or appropriate treatment with the possibility of clinical predictions is still an open problem.

2. Patients who were examined were also analyzed with their medical history, however, due to the small number of participants in the group, we did not obtain full information about the influence of other factors on the level of these biomarkers. This was one of the aspects limiting our research and therefore it would be worth considering further continuation of research with the use of these biomarkers. We did not find any difference in the levels of these biomarkers with respect to gender, but undoubtedly comorbidities are the cause of the etiology of stroke and have an impact on their expression.

3. Our study was not aimed at examining physiological changes in the development of stroke or how genetic background or environmental factors affect the pathomechanism of stroke, but we tried to find biomarkers important in diagnostics, or in the search for appropriate pharmacological standards that facilitate the work of a clinician. The problem of stroke is still a controversial issue and it has not been possible to indicate an appropriate biomarker, as is the case with heart attack. Our research center does not deal with genetic testing or dietetics of stroke patients, but this may be an important topic in the future.