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. 2025 May 27;25(1):226.
doi: 10.1186/s12883-025-04236-y.

Relationship between neuron-specific enolase and swallowing dysfunction in patients with acute ischemic stroke: a single-center retrospective study

Danyang Meng #  1   2 , Yanjing Lu #  1 , Ning Chen  1 , Jie Pan  1 , Bingtong Lin  1   3 , Jin Hu  4   5
Affiliations

Relationship between neuron-specific enolase and swallowing dysfunction in patients with acute ischemic stroke: a single-center retrospective study

Danyang Meng et al. BMC Neurol. .

Abstract

Objective: This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between neuron-specific enolase (NSE) and swallowing dysfunction in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) and evaluate the impact of early enteral nutrition intervention on NSE levels.

Setting and participants: A retrospective study was conducted involving 445 AIS patients admitted to the neurology department of the Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University between September 2015 and August 2022. Data collected included gender, age, water-swallowing test (WST) score upon admission, and NSE examination results on admission, the 5th day, and the 10th day.

Results: Among 445 enrolled AIS patients, 42.0% (187/445) exhibited swallowing dysfunction. Key findings revealed: (1) Positive correlation between WST severity and serum NSE levels across all timepoints (P < 0.05). (2) Dysphagia patients demonstrated elevated NSE levels versus controls (P < 0.05). (3) Early enteral nutrition intervention (n = 98) significantly reduced NSE levels by day 10 compared to non-intervention group (P < 0.05), though no intergroup differences were observed at admission or day 5 (P > 0.05).

Conclusions: NSE measurement is a simple supplement to the WST. There existed a significant correlation between NSE and swallowing dysfunction, making NSE a potential preliminary screening indicator for evaluating in ischemic stroke patients. And early implementation of enteral nutrition intervention could effectively reduce NSE levels in patients with ischemic stroke.

Keywords: Cerebral infarction; Enteral nutrition; Neuronal specific enolase; Oropharyngeal dysphagia; Swallowing dysfunction.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Human ethics and consent to participate declarations: It was a retrospective study. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, and approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, Jiaxing City (2023-KY-447). As this study was retrospective and did not contain any identifiable patient information and images, the Ethics Committee of Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University waived the participants’ written informed consent. Clinical trial number: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Comparison of NSE levels in AIS patients with dysphagia at different time points according to the WST scores: (a-b) NSE levels in pre admission; (c-d) NSE levels in day 5; (e-f) NSE levels in day 10, NSE levels increase with the increase of WST score (a = 0.05)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Differences in NSE levels in different groups: (a) grouping based on dysphagia; (b) grouping based on enteral nutrition intervention (***P < 0.001)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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