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R. Guy M. Jackson, Gurdip S. Samra, Jeremy Radcliffe, G. Heather Clark, Christopher P. Price
The Early Fall in Levels of S-100 ? in Traumatic Brain Injury
Protein S-100 ? has been suggested as a prognostic
marker in traumatic brain injury. However, little is
known of its behaviour in the immediate post-injury
period. With Ethics Committee approval, we recruited
30 patients with a history of head injury presenting to
our Accident and Emergency Department. Blood was
taken on arrival and at four hours post-injury. Serum S-100 ? was estimated using an immunoluminometric
assay. Levels of S-100 ? were seen to fall rapidly with
time. Half-time was distributed non-parametrically
with a median of 198 minutes. Using the Mann–Whitney
U test we found a statistically significant difference
between non-desirable (Glasgow Outcome Score
1–3) and desirable (Glasgow Outcome Score 4–5) outcome
on admission (p = 0.0155) but not at four hours
(p = 0.1336). Levels of S-100 ? fell rapidly after its release
following traumatic brain injury. Time after injury
is therefore critical in assessing the significance of levels
of S-100 ?, and sampling should be as early as possible
to gain maximum information. If S-100 ? is to be
assessed as a monitor of ongoing brain injury in the intensive
therapy unit sampling must be frequent (
Clinical Chemical Laboratory Medicine, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 1434-6621
Volume: 38, 11/2000
Pages: 1165 - 1167