Objective To investigate the changes in levels of MMP-9 and miR-139 before and after thrombolysis in elderly patients with acute ischemic stroke and their predictive value for patient outcomes.Methods 110 acute elderly ischemic stroke patients admitted to our hospital from June 2022 to June 2023 were chose as the study subjects(the research group),and 60 healthy individuals who underwent physical examinations during the same period were selected as the control group.Collect clinical data from each group and divide patients into a good prognosis group and a poor prognosis group based on the mRS score during the follow-up period.Detect changes in serum MMP-9 and miR-124 before and after thrombolysis,and compare clinical data and differences in serum MMP-9 levels among different groups of patients.Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the risk factors for adverse prognosis.Receiver operating characteristic(ROC)curve analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive value of individual and combined indicators for adverse prognosis after thrombolysis.Results The serum MMP-9 and miR-124 levels in patients with acute stroke were significantly increased(t=24.390,11.740,all P<0.001),Compared with before treatment,the serum MMP-9 and miR-124 levels significantly decreased after 24 hours and 3 days of treatment(all P<0.001),The serum MMP-9 and miR-124 levels before thrombolysis,NIHSS scores before thrombolysis,and time from onset to thrombolysis in patients with poor prognosis were higher than those in patients with good prognosis(t=12.450,2.293,5.861,2.344,all P<0.05),Logistic multivariate analysis showed that pre thrombolytic serum MMP-9 and miR-124 levels were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in patients(both P<0.05).The AUC for predicting poor prognosis after thrombolysis in acute stroke patients with combined detection of serum MMP-9 and miR-139 levels was 0.913,with sensitivity and specificity of 0.896 and 0.922,respectively.Conclusion Patients with acute ischemic stroke have higher levels of serum MMP-9 and miR-139,which decrease after thrombolysis.Pre-thrombolysis levels of serum MMP-9 and miR-139 are independent risk factors affecting prognosis.The combined detection of both has high predictive value for poor prognosis after thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke.