Changes of arginine vasopressin in elderly patients with acute traumatic cerebral injury.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the changes and clinical significance of arginine vasopressin (AVP) in elderly patients with acute traumatic cerebral injury.


METHODS
With radioimmunoassay, the plasma levels of AVP were measured in 32 elderly patients with acute traumatic cerebral injury, 30 traumatic patients without cerebral injury and 30 healthy elderly volunteers, respectively.


RESULTS
The plasma level of AVP in patients with acute traumatic cerebral injury in the early stage (48.30 ng/L +/- 8.28 ng/L) was much higher than that of the traumatic patients without cerebral injury (25.56 ng/L +/- 4.64 ng/L, P<0.01), which was much higher than that of the healthy volunteers (5.06 ng/L +/- 4.12 ng/L, P<0.01). The level of AVP in the patients with acute traumatic cerebral injury was negatively related with GCS scores.


CONCLUSIONS
AVP may play an important role in the pathophysiological process in patients with acute traumatic cerebral injury in the early stage. The severer the cerebral injury is, the higher the level of AVP is, which indicates that the level of AVP may be one of the severity indices of traumatic cerebral injury in elderly patients.
Huang
Wei-dong
WD
Department of Emergency, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Medical college, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, China. hz9495@163.net
Yang
Yun-mei
YM
Wu
Sheng-dong
SD
D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D015600:Glasgow Coma Scale; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009481:Neurophysins / Q000097:blood*; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000097:blood*; D014667:Vasopressins / Q000097:blood*
C438657:AVP protein, human; D009481:Neurophysins; D011498:Protein Precursors; D014667:Vasopressins