Patent ID: 8084225

Claim:
A method for diagnosing a primary ischemic neurovascular event in a patient in need thereof comprising: a) detecting and quantifying bound or total NR2 peptide (NR2 subunit of the N-methyl D-aspartate receptor) in a biological fluid from said patient, wherein said biological fluid is blood plasma, blood serum, or cerebrospinal fluid; b) detecting and quantifying unbound NR2 peptide in said biological fluid from said patient; c) if bound NR2 peptide is detected and quantified in step a), adding the quantity of bound NR2 peptide with the quantity of unbound NR2 quantified in step b) to arrive at a total quantity of NR2; and d) calculating the ratio of total:unbound NR2 peptide; wherein a ratio of less than 2:1 and/or a quantity of unbound NR2 peptide greater than 1.0 ng/ml is diagnostic of a primary neurovascular event.