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Brain & Heart Cerebral ischemia biomarkers

hampers the progress of biomarker research and limits its testing devices or miniaturized lab-on-a-chip technologies
clinical utility. can reduce costs and improve accessibility, especially in
To overcome these challenges, standardized protocols low-resource settings. Furthermore, collaboration between
and guidelines for biomarker discovery, validation, and academia, industry, and regulatory agencies can facilitate
implementation are needed. Standardization efforts the implementation of biomarkers by addressing regulatory
should also extend to sample handling, processing, and and reimbursement hurdles that affect the affordability and
storage to minimize experimental variation. In addition, availability of these tests.
rigorous validation studies with large and diverse cohorts In summary, standardization and reproducibility,
should be conducted to ensure the reproducibility and methodological limitations, cost, and accessibility are
generalisability of biomarker results. Joint efforts between key challenges in the translation of biomarkers into
research institutions and industry partners can promote clinical practice. Overcoming these challenges requires
consensus on standardization and improve the translation multi-stakeholder collaboration and coordinated efforts
of biomarkers into clinical practice. to establish standardized protocols, improve analytical
methods, and develop cost-effective biomarker tests.
9.2. Methodological limitations
Addressing these hurdles will not only increase the clinical
Methodological limitations represent another major challenge utility of biomarkers but also pave the way for precision
in the translation of biomarkers. Biomarker studies often rely medicine and personalized medicine.
on sophisticated technologies and analytical techniques,
such as genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. However, 10. Future directions and conclusion
these methods have inherent limitations that can affect the The search for reliable biomarkers for cerebral ischemia
accuracy and reliability of biomarker measurements. For has made promising progress in recent years. Imaging
example, DNA sequencing technologies can produce false techniques such as CT, MRI, DWI, and PET have
positive or false negative results due to technical errors provided valuable insights into the pathophysiology and
or sample contamination. Similarly, mass spectrometry- localization of ischemic damage. Blood-based biomarkers,
based proteomics can be affected by variations in sample including proteins, miRNAs, and metabolites, offer the
preparation and instrument calibration.
potential for non-invasive and cost-effective detection and
In addition, the diversity of biomarker types, such as prognostication. However, before these biomarkers can be
genetic, protein, and imaging biomarkers, requires different successfully integrated into routine clinical practice, further
methods for their measurement and interpretation. research is needed to establish standardized protocols,
This heterogeneity poses a challenge in standardizing overcome methodological limitations, and address clinical
analytical methods and establishing universal thresholds challenges. Future studies should focus on large-scale
or cutoff values for clinical decision-making. Biomarker validation trials to determine the diagnostic and prognostic
validation studies should address these methodological accuracy of these biomarkers and evaluate their potential
limitations by systematically evaluating the analytical for decision-making in the treatment of cerebral ischemia.
performance of the measurement tests and considering
multiple validation metrics, such as sensitivity, specificity, Acknowledgments
and predictive value.
To all my co-workers during the past two decades in the
9.3. Cost and accessibility field of cerebral ischemia.
Cost and accessibility are major challenges in the Funding
implementation of biomarkers in clinical practice. Many
biomarkers rely on expensive and complex technologies, None.
making their routine use in the clinic financially Conflict of interest
burdensome. The high cost of biomarker tests hinders their
widespread use, especially in resource-limited settings. In The author declares that she has no competing interests.
addition, the availability and accessibility of biomarker
assays vary across healthcare systems, limiting the global Author contributions
dissemination and adoption of these diagnostic tools. This is a single-authored article.
To overcome these challenges, efforts should be made to
develop cost-effective biomarker assays that can be readily Ethics approval and consent to participate
used in clinical laboratories. The use of point-of-care Not applicable.

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 13 doi: 10.36922/bh.2750