The relationship between neuron-specific enolase and prognosis of patients with acute traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Objective To investigate the relationship between neuron-specific enolase (NSE) levels in serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the prognosis of TBI patients.  Methods A total of 89 patients with acute TBI were divided into light, medium, heavy and severe TBI groups based on admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score. Serum NSE expression levels were detected in all cases and NSE levels in CSF were detected in 18 cases within 12 h after TBI. The expression levels of serum NSE in 20 normal people, except cases of lung disease and nervous system damage, were detected as a control group. Results Compared with the control group, serum NSE expression levels of patients in each TBI group were elevated (P < 0.05, for all), and the NSE levels in severe and heavy TBI groups were higher than that in medium and light groups (P < 0.05, for all). The serum NSE expression levels of patients with cerebral contusion were higher than that of patients with diffuse axonal injury (DAI, P = 0.025), subdural hematoma (P = 0.031) and epidural hematoma (P = 0.021). Serum NSE expression levels were negatively correlated with GCS score (r_s = - 0.327, P = 0.024) and Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score (r_s = - 0.252, P = 0.049). The NSE expression levels of CSF in severe and heavy TBI patients were higher than that of serum (P = 0.039, 0.031).  Conclusions NSE expression changes can be evaluated as an auxiliary indicator in reflecting the degree of acute TBI, typing diagnosis and prognostic evaluation, and NSE levels of CSF is more sensitive than that of serum.

DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2015.03.013