title: Reference values for venous and capillary S100B in children.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The current management guidelines for pediatric mild head injury (MHI) liberally recommend computed tomography (CT) and frequent admission. Serum protein S100B, currently used in management of adult head injury, has recently shown potential for reducing unnecessary CT scans after pediatric mild head injury. Capillary sampling in children is commonly used when venous sampling fails or is inappropriate. We present reference values for both venous and capillary samples of protein S100B in children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Neurologically healthy children aged 1-16, scheduled for minor surgery requiring general anesthesia, were prospectively included. Samples for S100B were drawn before (venous) and after (venous and capillary) sedation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Serum values of 455 children (255 boys, 200 girls) aged 1-14 were computed. S100B was higher in younger children for both venous (r=-0.32) and capillary samples (r=-0.28). Reference levels for children aged 1 and 2 were significantly higher than for children aged 3-14 years (venous 0.15 μg/L, capillary 0.37 μg/L). For capillary blood, a gender difference was found in the youngest age groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We present reference values for venous and capillary S100B in healthy children. These results can be utilized when considering future studies on pediatric head injury and S100B levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Lund University, Lund, Sweden. raastrand@gmail.com
authors.forename: Ramona
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Astrand
authors.forename: Bertil
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Romner
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lanke
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Undén
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000097:blood*; D012015:Reference Standards; D064568:S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit; D009418:S100 Proteins / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D064568:S100 Calcium Binding Protein beta Subunit; D009418:S100 Proteins; C579160:S100B protein, human