Serum Biomarkers of Traumatic Brain Injury and Outcome

Levels of the biomarkers S100B and glial fibrillary acidic protein, measured early after TBI, correlate with long-term outcome. But are they clinically useful?

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a heterogeneous disease. Current methods of TBI classification and outcome prediction, which use the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and computed tomography (CT), leave much to be desired. Serum biomarkers hold promise as tools to assess the degree of underlying brain injury and its impact on outcome. These authors performed a prospective, observational study to assess whether blood levels of the brain injury biomarkers S100B and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were elevated after TBI and whether the levels correlated with functional outcome as well as or better than clinical and CT findings.

Sixty patients with varying degrees of TBI underwent CT scanning, assessment with the GCS, and blood draw on hospital a…

Reviewing Author

J. Claude Hemphill III, MD, MAS