Structural biomarkers in the cerebrospinal fluid within 24 h after a traumatic spinal cord injury: a descriptive analysis of 16 subjects

Item does not contain fulltext Study design:Prospective cohort study.Objectives:To characterize the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) concentrations of glial fibrillary acidic protein, neuron specific enolase (NSE), S-100beta, tau and neurofilament heavy chain (NFH) within 24 h of an acute traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), and to correlate these concentrations with the baseline severity of neurologic impairment as graded by the American Spinal Injury Association impairment scale (AIS).Methods:A lumbar puncture was performed to obtain CSF from 16 acute traumatic SCI patients within 24 h post injury. Neurological examinations were performed within 24 h of injury and again at 6 or 12 months post injury. The correlations between the CSF concentrations and initial AIS were calculated by using Pearson correlation coefficients. In addition, an independent Student's t-test was used to test for differences in CSF concentrations between patients of different AIS grades.Results:The CSF NSE concentrations were significantly correlated with the baseline neurologic impairment being either 'motor complete' (AIS A, B) or 'motor incomplete' (AIS C, D) (r=0.520, P