Blood Markers Could Determine Necessity of CT With Mild TBI

A blood test may be able to diagnose patients with a concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI), cutting the need for a head CT, according to a study published Nov. 15, 2014 in the Journal of Neurotrauma. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) seems to be a brain-specific marker of trauma and out performed S100β in predicting intracranial lesions on CT, particularly in patients with non-head-related fractures. Lead author Linda Papa, M.D., tells DTET that GFAP, a relatively new marker associated with TBI, is a protein that “spills out” of glial cells in the brain into cerebrospinal fluid and blood with brain injury. By contrast, Papa says S100β (a major low-affinity calcium binding protein in astrocytes) is the most well-studied biomarker for TBI, but is not sufficiently brain-specific and rises in patients with non-head bone injuries. “GFAP is loyal to the brain even in the face of other fractures,” says Papa, from Orlando Regional Medical Center and the University of Central Florida. Papa and colleagues assessed the ability of GFAP and S100β to predict the presence of traumatic intracranial lesions on CT scan (n=262 patients) in a convenience sample of adult trauma patients with and without mild or moderate TBI (without […]