Objective To explore the relationship between inflammatory cytokines and early neurological improvement after acute ischemic stroke(AIS).Methods The clinical data of 129 AIS patients admitted from February 2022 to September 2023 in Wenzhou Hospital of Tradition Chinese Medicine were retrospectively analyzed.According to neurological improvement in 2 weeks after the onset,the patients were divided into a good recovery group(83 cases)and a poor recovery group(46 cases).The clinical data of the two groups were compared,including the degree of responsible vessel stenosis,the prevalence of diabetes,and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale(NIHSS)score at the time of visit.White blood cell count(WBC),neutrophils(NEU),fibrinogen(Fib),homocysteine(Hcy),tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α),interleukin(IL)-6 and IL-10 levels were detected in two groups.logistic regression model was used to analyze the influencing factors of early neural function recovery.ROC curve was used to analyze the value of laboratory indicators in predicting early neurological improvement.Pearson correlation was used to analyze the relationship between laboratory measures and NIHSS in 2 weeks after stroke.Results The culprit vessel stenosis,diabetes prevalence,NIHSS score,WBC,NEU,TNF-α and IL-6 were significantly higher and IL-10 was significantly lower in the poor recovery group than in the good recovery group(all P<0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that the degree of culprit vessel stenosis,diabetes,TNF-α,IL-6 and IL-10 were the factors affecting the early neurological improvement(all P<0.05).ROC curve showed the AUC of the combined measure of TNF-α,IL-6,and IL-10 for predicting early neurological recovery after AIS was significantly higher than that of a single measure(all P<0.05).TNF-αand IL-6 were positively correlated with NIHSS(r=0.461,0.365,P<0.05).IL-10 was negatively correlated with NIHSS score(r=-0.451,P<0.05).Conclusion IL-6,IL-10 and TNF-α are related to early recovery of neurological function after AIS.