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. 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 traumatic brain injury

Authors/year Study design Population N Bio-marker Sample source Findings
Markers of CNS origin
 Okonkwo, 2013 Pro Mild, moderate, and severe TBI 215 GFAP-BDP Blood Levels of GFAP-BDP were related to number of CT scan lesions and to neurological recovery
A level of 0.68 μg/L was associated with a 21.61 OR for a positive CT and a 2.07 OR for failure to return to pre-injury baseline
 Metting, 2012 Pro Mild TBI 94 s100β. GFAP Blood Levels of GFAP but not s100β were related to outcome, but the PPV was not high (<50 %)
 Vos, 2010 Pro Moderate and severe TBI 79 s100β, GFAP Blood Levels of s100β and GFAP on admission were associated with poor outcome at 6 months and with mortality at 6 months even after adjusting for injury severity
 Vos, 2004 Pro Severe TBI 85 s100β, NSE, GFAP Blood s100β, NSE, and GFAP were all higher in non-survivors and in those with poor 6-month outcome
s100β > 1.13 μg/L predicted death with 100 % discrimination
 Wiesmann, 2009 Pro Mild, moderate, and severe TBI 60 s100β, GFAP Blood Levels of s100β and GFAP were correlated with 6 month GOS
Levels of s100β at 24 h post-injury had the highest correlation
 Pelinka, 2004 Pro TBI within 12 h 92 s100β, GFAP Blood GFAP and s100β were higher in non-survivors and predicted mortality
 Nylen, 2008 Pro Severe TBI 59 s100β, s100a1b, s100βb Blood Levels of s100β, s100a1b, and s100βb were all related to 1 year GOS
 Nylen, 2006 Pro Severe TBI 59 GFAP Blood Levels of GFAP were independently associated with 1-year outcome
 Olivecrona, 2009 Pro Severe TBI 48 s100β, NSE Blood Levels of NSE and s100β were not significantly related to outcome at 3 or 12 months
 Topolovec-Vranic, 2011 Pro Mild TBI within 4 h 141 s100β, NSE Blood s100β predicted poor cognitive outcome at 1 week
NSE is independently associated with poor cognitive outcome at 6 weeks post-injury
 Rainey, 2009 Pro Severe TBI within 24 h 100 s100β Blood s100β at 24 h post injury were higher in patients with unfavorable outcome
s100β > 0.53 μg/L predicted poor outcome (>80 % sensitivity; 60 % specificity)
 Thelin, 2013 Retro Severe TBI 265 s100β Blood Levels of s100β between 12 and 36 h of injury were correlated with 6–12 months GOS and remained significantly related to outcome after adjustment for injury severity factors
 Rodriguez-Rodriguez, 2012 Pro Severe TBI 55 s100β Blood urine Blood and urine s100β at 24 h post-TBI were significantly higher in non-survivors
Serum s100β > 0.461 μg/L (88.4 % specificity) and urine s100β > 0.025 μg/L (62.8 % specificity) predicted mortality
 Kay, 2003 Case control TBI with GCS < 8 27 TBI, 28 CTRL ApoE, s100β CSF s100β is elevated and ApoE is decreased in TBI compared with controls
 Mondello, 2012 Case control Severe TBI 95 UCH-L1 Blood, CSF Blood and CSF levels of UCH-L1 were higher in patients with lower GCS, in patients who died, and in patients with unfavorable outcome. Levels at 6 h had the highest correlation
Cumulative serum UCH-L1 > 5.22 μg/L predicted death with OR 4.8
 Brophy, 2011 Pro Severe TBI GCS ≤ 8 86 (blood), 59 (CSF) UCH-L1 Blood, CSF Non-survivors had higher median serum and CSF UCH-L1 levels in the first 24 h
 Papa, 2010 Pro TBI GCS ≤ 8 with EVD 41 TBI, 25 CTRL UCH-L1 CSF UCH-L1 was higher in TBI compared with controls at all time points up to 168 h
Levels of UCH-L1 were higher in patients with a lower GCS at 24 h, post-injury complications, in those died within 6 weeks, and in those with poor outcome at 6 months
 Papa, 2012 Pro Mild and moderate TBI GCS 9–15 96 TBI, 199 CTRL UCH-L1 Blood UCH-L1 within 4 h of injury distinguished TBI from uninjured controls (AUC = 0.87 [0.82–0.92])
UCH-L1 was associated with severity of injury in TBI
 Liliang, 2010 Pro Severe TBI 34 Tau Blood Tau levels were significantly higher in patients with a poor outcome
Remained significant when adjusted for injury severity factors
 Pineda, 2007 Pro Severe TBI 41 SBDP145, SBDP150 CSF SBDP145 and 150 levels were significantly related to outcome at 6 months
 Brophy, 2009 Case control Severe TBI 38 SBDP145, SBDP150 CSF SBDP145 and 150 levels were higher in patients with worse GCS and longer ICP elevation
 Mondello, 2010 Pro Severe TBI 40 TBI, 24 CTRL SBDP145, SBDP120 CSF SBDP145 > 6 μg/L (OR 5.9) and SBDP 120 > 17.55 μg/L (OR 18.34) predicted death
SBDP145 within 24 h of injury correlated with GCS score
Inflammatory markers
 Schneider Soares, 2012 Pro Mild, moderate, and severe TBI 127 IL-10, TNFα Blood Levels of IL-10 but not TNFα were related to mortality, even when adjusted for injury severity characteristics
 Stein, 2012 Pro Severe TBI 68 IL-8, TNFα Serum High levels of both IL-8 and TNFα predicted subsequent development of intracranial hypertension (specificity was high but sensitivity was low)
 Tasci, 2003 Pro Mild, moderate, and severe TBI 48 IL-1 Blood IL-1 levels within 6 h correlated with the initial injury severity (GCS) and with GOS, but timing of the GOS is not described
 Antunes, 2010 Pro TBI with hemorrhagic contusions 30 IL-6 Blood IL-6 levels at 6 h were higher in patients who would subsequently clinically deteriorate due to evolving contusions
Combinations of markers
 Diaz-Arrastia, 2013 Pro Mild, moderate, and severe TBI 206 UCH-L1, GFAP Blood Levels of UCH-L1 were higher with moderate-severe than with mild TBI
UCH-L1 levels were poorly predictive of complete recovery but better at predicting poor outcome
For predicting complete recovery, UCH-L1 in combination with GFAP was not better than GFAP alone. For predicting favorable versus unfavorable outcome, UCH-L1 is marginally better than GFAP and both together are better than either alone
 Czeiter, 2012 Pro Severe TBI 45 GFAP, UCH-L1, SBDP145 Serum, CSF GFAP, UCH-L1, and SBDP145 all had at least one measure that was significantly related to unfavorable outcome
When included in a model with IMPACT predictors of outcome, serum GFAP during first 24 h and the first CSF UCH-L1 value obtained were significantly related to mortality and only serum GFAP during first 24 h was significantly related to unfavorable outcome
In combination, the IMPACT core model with the first CSF GFAP value, the first serum GFAP value, and the first CSF SBDP145 value performed the best

Pro prospective, PPV positive predictive value, Retro retrospective, CTRL control subjects, GOS Glasgow outcome scale, OR odds ratio, PPV positive predictive value