Implementing Blood Biomarkers in Stroke Research and Clinical Practice

Blood-based biomarkers reflecting the severity of brain injury showed manifold promising applications in the management of patients with stroke. To date, NfL (neurofilament light chain) and GFAP (glial fibrillary acidic protein) represent the markers with the most support from the literature, but novel biomarker candidates are emerging. In this commentary, we discuss the potential benefits that blood biomarkers would have as additional tools for physicians and stroke specialists in the assessment of stroke risk in the general population, in the acute and postacute phase of stroke management as well as during the longitudinal monitoring of patients during rehabilitation. Moreover, we present an overview of the current applications of blood biomarkers in ongoing clinical trials and debate the still unmet needs of biomarker research in stroke that future studies should target to ease their implementation in the routine care of patients.