Can a simple blood test quantify brain injury?
Despite significant advances in neurocritical care, it remains difficult to precisely measure the extent of neurological injury in patients affected by stroke, trauma, or cardiac arrest. In the intensive care unit the extent of primary and secondary injury often eludes clinicians, making prognostication imprecise and difficult. Derwall and colleagues present their findings on the dynamics of serum S-100B protein levels in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors. Their study suggests that elevation of S-100B reflects the severity of the primary hypoxic-ischemic insult.
Mayer
Stephan A
SA
Neurological Intensive Care Unit, Milstein Hospital Building, 177 Fort Washington Avenue, Suite 8-300 Center, New York, NY 10032, USA. sam14@columbia.edu
Linares
Guillermo
G
D016638:Critical Illness; D006801:Humans; D020925:Hypoxia-Ischemia, Brain / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000097:blood*; D064568:S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit; D009418:S100 Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices
D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D064568:S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit; D009418:S100 Proteins