Circulating hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) was positively associated with the incidence of stroke in a diverse, population-based cohort of men and women from the US, according to a recent study. This research support the hypothesis that circulating HGF is a marker of endothelial damage and suggests that HGF may have utility as a prognostic marker of stroke risk. Participants aged 45 to 84 years (n=6,711) had HGF measured between 2000 and 2002 and were followed for incident stroke through 2013 (n=233). A secondary analysis stratified results by adjudicated stroke type (n=183 ischemic; n=39 hemorrhagic; n=11 other). Researchers found:

• After adjustment for potential confounding variables, risk of stroke was 17% higher with each standard deviation increase in HGF.
• This association was mainly driven by ischemic stroke and did not change on exclusion of cardioembolic strokes, although the number of excluded cases was small.
• The few hemorrhagic and other types of stroke were not associated with HGF.