Naess H, et al. - In patients admitted to hospital within three hours of stroke onset, researchers investigated the association between hemoglobin level and ischemic stroke severity and short-term improvement by locally weighted scatterplot smoothing (lowess smoother) curves. Participants in the study were 905 ischemic stroke subjects admitted within three hours of stroke onset. Regression analysis exhibited low hemoglobin to be independently linked to females, high age, severe stroke, low systolic blood pressure, prior cerebral infarction, not smoking, not atrial fibrillation, and unknown etiology. According to findings, a U-shaped relationship was found between hemoglobin level on admission and stroke severity. No U-shaped relationship existed between improvement and level of hemoglobin. Poor short-term improvement has been associated with low levels of hemoglobin.