Publication:

Gender-based evaluation of atherogenic indices in ischemic stroke: a retrospective study in a neuropsychiatric facility

Background An ischemic stroke is a condition that causes permanent damage to brain tissues and neurological disorders when blood flow to the brain is blocked. The lipid profiles can provide the baseline data, but more precise predictions of patient recovery can be affected by researchers studying some ratios between the lipoproteins called atherogenic indices. The research will help evaluate and determine the dependence of atherogenic indices of lipids on predictive value on ischemic stroke and to investigate potentially existing gender differences in the predictive value.

Methods This was a retrospective cohort study conducted from June 2025 to January 2026 in one of the tertiary Neuropsychiatric centers in Northern India and followed up on 80 cases of ischemic stroke patients (20-90) in 6 months. The research participants were divided into two groups (with and without stroke), and those who had hemiplegia caused by a stroke. Lipid profile data was used to calculate atherogenic indices: Atherogenic index of plasma (AIP=log[TG/HDLc]), Castelli risk indices I and II (CRI-I=TC/HDLc and CRI-II=LDLc/HDLc), and atherogenic coefficient (AC=[TC–HDLc]/HDLc). Indices were evaluated separately for males and females.

Results Males were reportedly seen to associate significantly with stroke and hemiplegia (p=0.027). There were more males affected by hypertension (p=0.046), but no significant gender difference in diabetes. A statistically significant difference found between genders in AIP (p=0.032). In males, CRI-II was the highest-predicting variable (AUC=0.503; CI=0.373-0.632), but it was not significant.

Conclusions AIP and CRI-II could be useful as gender-sensitive predictors of ischemic stroke, as they provide cost-effective tools in clinical risk assessment.