Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Oct 24.
Published in final edited form as: Neurocrit Care. 2014 Dec;21(Suppl 2):S297–S361. doi: 10.1007/s12028-014-0081-x

Biomarkers for subarachnoid hemorrhage

Author/year Study design Population N Bio-marker Sample source Findings
Markers of CNS origin
 Weisman, 1997 Pro Aneurysmal SAH within 3 days of ictus 70 s100β Serum s100β is higher at 24 h, 3 and 7 days post SAH compared to controls
Higher s100β levels correlate with worse HH grade
Higher s100β in the first week after SAH correlate with worse 6 month outcome
 Stranjalis, 2007 Pro Spontaneous SAH within 48 h of ictus 52 s100β Serum Admission s100β > 0.3 μg/L predicted unfavorable outcome and is independent predictor of short-term survival (HR 2.2) (77.8 % sensitivity; 76 % specificity)
s100β correlates positively with HH and Fisher scores
s100β decreased after EVD insertion
 Oertel, 2006 Pro Aneurysmal SAH 51 s100β, NSE Serum s100β during first 3 days of SAH is higher in those who died compared to survivors
All patients with s100β > 1.0 μg/L had unfavorable outcome
NSE had no association with outcome
s100β is lower in patients with vasospasm (by transcranial doppler)
 Coplin, 1999 Pro Aneurysmal SAH 27 CKBB CSF CKBB > 40μ/L is associated with poor outcome at hospital discharge (100 % specificity)
Inflammatory markers
 Pan, 2013 Pro Aneurysmal SAH 262 SAH, 150 CTRL pGSN Blood pGSN were lower in SAH compared with controls
pGSN was an independent predictor of poor functional outcome (OR 0.957) and death (OR 0.953) at 6 months
Adding pGSN improved predictive performance of WFNS and Fisher scores for functional outcome but not for mortality
 Frijins, 2006 Pro SAH within 72 h of ictus, exclude perimesencephalic SAH 106 vWF Serum vWf > 94.5 nmol/L was independently associated with increased odds for poor outcome at 3 months (OR 1.1–9.8)
sICAM-1, sP-selectin, sE-selectin, vWf propeptide, and ED 1-fibronectin were not independently associated with outcome
 Mack, 2002 Pro SAH, excluding those with pro-inflammatory disease process 80 sICAM-1 Serum sICAM-1 was elevated in SAH (293.3 ± 15 μg/L) compared with controlssICAM-1 on post-SAH days 8 10, and 12 were significantly elevated in those with unfavorable mRS at discharge
 Beeftink, 2011 Pro Aneurysmal SAH 67 TNFα, Leukocytes, CRP Serum Neither TNFα nor TNFα genotype were associated with DCI or with SAH outcome at 3 months
High leukocyte count and high CRP are not associated with DCI or SAH outcome
 Chou, 2011 Pro Spontaneous SAH, within 96 h of ictus 55 MMP9 CSF Elevation of MMP9 on post SAH day 2–3 is associated with poor outcome (mRS 3–6) at 3 months
 Chou, 2011 Pro Spontaneous SAH, within 96 h of ictus 55 Neutrophil, WBC Blood Elevated neutrophil count on post SAH day 3 is associated with poor 3-month outcome
Elevated WBC count throughout post SAH days 0–14 is associated with angiographic vasospasm
 Chou, 2012 Pro Spontaneous SAH, within 96 h of ictus 52 TNFα, IL-6 Serum Elevated TNFα over post-SAH days 0–14 is independently associated with poor long term outcome
IL-6 is not associated with SAH outcome
Neither TNFα nor IL-6 was associated with angiographic vasospasm
 Chou, 2011 Pro Spontaneous SAH, within 96 h of ictus 42 pGSN CSF, Serum Serum pGSN is decreased in SAH compared to controls, and decreases over time in SAH
CSF pGSN is decreased in SAH compared to controls
Novel pGSN fragments found in SAH CSF but not in controls
 Fassbender, 2001 Pro Aneurysmal SAH within 48 h of ictus 35 IL-1β, IL-6, TNFα CSF, Serum IL-1β and IL-6 are significantly higher in CSF than in serum in SAH
CSF IL-6 on post-SAH day 5 is significantly elevated in poor outcome group
CSF TNFα did not show significant association with outcome
 Mathiesen, 1997 Pro SAH patients with EVD 22 IL-1Rα, TNFα CSF IL-1Rα were higher in poor grade SAH (HH 3–4; 318 vs. 82 pg/mL)
Elevated IL-1Ra and TNFα on post SAH days 4–10 were associated with poor outcome
 Weir, 1989 Retro Aneurysmal SAH with vital signs and CBC data (76 % missing data) 173 WBC Blood Admission WBC > 15 × 109/L shows 55 % mortality versus 25 % mortality in the lower WBC group
 Kiikawa, 1997 Retro Fisher grade 3 SAH treated with aneurysm clipping within 24 h of ictus 103 WBC Blood WBC counts during days 3–5, 6–8, 9–11, and 12–14 after onset of SAH were significantly higher in patients with than in patients without symptomatic vasospasm
Other biomarkers
 Niskakangas, 2001 Case control Aneurysmal SAH 108 ApoE4 Blood Presence of ApoE4 was associated with unfavorable outcome (OR 2.8 [1.18–6.77])
 Juvela, 2009 Case control SAH within 48 h of ictus 105 ε2, ε4– containing genotypes Blood Apolipoprotein E ε2 or ε4–containing genotypes were not associated with outcome or occurrence of cerebral infarction
 Laterna, 2005 Case control SAH HH grade 1–3 101 ApoE4 genotype Blood Presence of Apo E4 genotype is associated with negative overall outcome
Apo E4 genotype is associated with development of DIND
 Leung, 2002 Case control Spontaneous SAH 72 ApoE4 genotype Blood ApoE4 genotype is associated with poor 6 month outcome (OR 11.3 [2.2–57.0])
 Kay, 2003 Case Control Spontaneous SAH requiring EVD 19 s100β, ApoE CSF s100β is significantly higher in SAH compared to controls
ApoE is significantly lower in SAH compared to controls
Lower ApoE was associated with better clinical outcome
 Laterna, 2007 Meta-analysis Consecutive SAH, with 3 month follow up data 696 ApoE4 genotype Blood Apo E4 genotype is associated with negative outcome (OR 2.558 [1.610–4.065]) and delayed ischemia (OR 2.044 [1.269–3.291])
 Moussoutas, 2012 Pro SAH with EVD, HH grade 3–5, endovascular aneurysm treatment 102 Epinephrine CSF Elevated CSF epinephrine within 48 h of admission is independently associated with mortality at 15 days (OR 1.06 [1.01–1.10]) and with death and disability at 30 days (OR 1.05 [1.02–1.09])
 Yarlagadda, 2006 Pro Spontaneous SAH, >21 years 300 BNP, cTI Serum Initial BNP > 600 pg/mL is associated with death (OR 37.7 [5.0–286.2])
cTI > 0.3 mg/L (on post-SAH day 9 ± 4) is associated with death (OR 4.9 [2.1–26.8])
No standardized time of biosample collection
 Naidech, 2005 Pro Spontaneous non-traumatic SAH 253 cTI Serum Peak cTI was independently predictive of death or severe disability at hospital discharge (OR 1.4 [1.1–1.9])
cTI not independently predictive of 3 month outcome by mRS
 Ramappa, 2008 Retro SAH diagnosed by CT scan or CSF, SAH ICD-9 code, with cTI measured 83 cTI Blood Peak cTI and GCS on presentation independently predicted in-hospital mortality

Pro prospective observational, Retro retrospective, CTRL control subjects, CBC complete blood count, HH grade Hunt and Hess grade, WFNS World Federation of Neurosurgeons classification, DIND delayed ischemic neurological deficit, DCI delayed cerebral ischemia, mRS modified Rankins score, OR odds ratio