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Bu X, Li D, Wang F, Sun Q, Zhang Z. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2020;16:1863–1877. At the authors request, the Editor and Publisher of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment wish to retract the published article. The authors have stated that the images used in the article have been altered to varying degrees and are composites which were not taken from original experiments. The Editor agreed with the authors decision to retract the article. Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.

Objective: Abnormal elevation of D-dimer levels is an important indicator of disseminated intravascular clotting. Therefore, we hypothesized that high D-dimer levels were associated with the risk of stroke and adverse clinical outcomes of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Methods: The present meta-analysis aimed to systematically analyze the associations between D-dimer and the risk of stroke as well as the clinical outcomes of patients with post-stroke or TIA. Meanwhile, dose–response analyses were conducted when there were sufficient data available. Three electronic databases including Pubmed, the Embase database, and the Cochrane Library were searched by two investigators independently. All the pooled results were expressed as risk ratios (RRs). Results: Finally, 22 prospective cohort studies were included into this meta-analysis. The results suggested that high D-dimer levels were associated with increased risks of total stroke (RR 1.4, 95%CI 1.20–1.63), hemorrhagic stroke (RR 1.25, 95%CI 0.69–2.25), and ischemic Stroke (RR 1.55, 95%CI 1.22–1.98), and the dose-dependent relationship was not found upon dose–response analyses. Besides, the high D-dimer levels on admission were correlated with increased risks of all-cause mortality [RR 1.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26–2.49], 5-day recurrence (RR 2.28, 95%CI 1.32–3.95), and poor functional outcomes (RR 2.01, 95%CI 1.71–2.36) in patients with AIS or TIA. Conclusions: On the whole, high D-dimer levels may be associated with the risks of total stroke and ischemic stroke, but not with hemorrhagic stroke. However, dose–response analyses do not reveal distinct evidence for a dose-dependent association of D-dimer levels with the risk of stroke. Besides, high D-dimer levels on admission may predict adverse clinical outcomes, including all-cause mortality, 5-day recurrence, and 90-day poor functional outcomes, of patients with AIS or TIA. More studies are warranted to quanti

This paper has been retracted. Bu X, Li D, Wang F, Sun Q, Zhang Z. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2020;16:1863–1877. At the authors request, the Editor and Publisher of Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment wish to retract the published article. The authors have stated that the images used in the article have been altered to varying degrees and are composites which were not taken from original experiments. The Editor agreed with the authors decision to retract the article. Our decision-making was informed by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retraction. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.