Association between Cerebrospinal Fluid and Serum Biomarker Levels and Diagnosis, Injury Severity, and Short-Term Outcomes in Patients with Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

Acute traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is recognized as a global problem that can lead to a range of acute and secondary complications impacting morbidity and mortality. There is still a lack of reliable diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in patients with SCI that could help guide clinical care and identify novel therapeutic targets for future drug discovery. The aim of this prospective controlled study was to determine the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) and serum profiles of 10 biomarkers as indicators of SCI diagnosis, severity, and prognosis to aid in assessing appropriate treatment modalities. CSF and serum samples of 15 SCI and ten healthy participants were included in the study. The neurological assessments were scored on admission and at discharge from the hospital using the American Spinal Injury Association Impairment Score (AIS) grades. The CSF and serum concentrations of SBDP150, S100B, GFAP, NF-L, UCHL-1, Tau, and IL-6 were significantly higher in SCI patients when compared with the control group. The CSF GBDP 38/44K, UCHL-L1, S100B, GFAP, and Tau levels were significantly higher in the AIS A patients. This study demonstrated a strong correlation between biomarker levels in the diagnosis and injury severity of SCI but no association with short-term outcomes. Future prospective controlled studies need to be done to support the results of this study.

Management of Cervical Spinal Cord Injury without Major Bone Injury in Adults

“…The clinical significance of delayed MRI (>2 weeks after injury) was suggested in a prospective study; however, determining the need for surgery and implementing it as soon as possible are both difficult tasks. Other objective assessments, such as machine learning [79][80][81], biomarkers [82][83][84], and novel imaging technologies [85][86][87], are required to evaluate neurological prognoses and treatment strategies. The increased signal intensity grade in delayed MRI displayed a significantly negative correlation with the JOA score; however, this correlation was absent in acute MRI.…”

Can the Initial Parameters of Functional Scales Predict Recovery in Patients with Complete Spinal Cord Injury? A Retrospective Cohort Study

“…According to the literature, a number of clinical, imaging and therapeutic factors may have an impact on clinical improvement in patients with SCIs [9][10][11][12][13][14]. No publication was found in which the effects of various functional factors of the patient (scales: American Spinal Cord Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS) [15], the Barthel Index (BI) [16] and Spinal Cord Independence Measure, version III (SCIM) [17]) were analyzed in detail in reference to the possibilities of clinical improvement in patients with complete SCIs (AIS-A) in the cervical segment of the spine.…”