Small RNA-sequencing in plasma of acute stroke code patients

We investigated circulating small non-coding RNAs as potential biomarkers to distinguish between acute ischemic stroke (IS), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) and stroke mimics (SM). In an ongoing observational cohort study, we performed small RNA-sequencing in plasma obtained from a discovery cohort of 26 patients (9 IS, 8 ICH and 9 SM) presented to the emergency department within 6 hours of symptom onset. Plasma was depleted of extracellular vesicles by two steps of ultracentrifugation (70 min 17,500 x g; 70 min 166,400 x g) prior to RNA isolation.