Testing a Prehospital Biomarker to Identify Intracerebral Hemorrhage

GFAP levels show some promise in distinguishing ICH from ischemic stroke or stroke mimics but will need thresholds for particular use cases and prospective validation.

Patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) benefit from early blood pressure lowering, but acute ischemic stroke patients are harmed by it. Because access to mobile stroke units is limited, ultra-early prehospital interventions must have some alternative method of distinguishing ICH from acute ischemic stroke. The DETECT investigators therefore evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of a candidate blood biomarker for this purpose: Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), an astrocyte cytoskeletal protein, is rapidly released into the blood in ICH but is low in healthy individuals and for the first several hours after ischemic stroke. They tested a 15-minute point-of-care device to determine GFAP levels in blood samples taken at hospital arrival…

Reviewing Author

Anthony S. Kim, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Anthony S. Kim, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; NIH/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences

Testing a Prehospital Biomarker to Identify Intracerebral Hemorrhage

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Reviewing Author