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01-08-2009 | Commentary

Can a simple blood test quantify brain injury?

Authors: Stephan A Mayer, Guillermo Linares

Published in: Critical Care | Issue 4/2009

Abstract

Despite significant advances in neurocritical care, it remains difficult to precisely measure the extent of neurological injury in patients affected by stroke, trauma, or cardiac arrest. In the intensive care unit the extent of primary and secondary injury often eludes clinicians, making prognostication imprecise and difficult. Derwall and colleagues present their findings on the dynamics of serum S-100B protein levels in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors. Their study suggests that elevation of S-100B reflects the severity of the primary hypoxic-ischemic insult.

Derwall M, Stoppe C, Brücken D, Rossaint R, Fries M: Changes in S-100 protein serum levels in survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with mild therapeutic hypothermia: a prospective, observational study. Crit Care 2009, 13: R58. 10.1186/cc7785PubMedCentralCrossRefPubMed

Bernard SA, Gray TW, Buist MD, Jones BM, Silvester W, Gutteridge G, Smith K: Treatment of comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with induced hypothermia. N Engl J Med 2002, 346: 557-563. 10.1056/NEJMoa003289CrossRefPubMed

Bernard SA, Buist M: Induced hypothermia in critical care medicine: A review. Crit Care Med 2003, 31: 2041-2051. 10.1097/01.CCM.0000069731.18472.61CrossRefPubMed

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Bernard S: Therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. Neurol Clin 2006, 24: 61-71. 10.1016/j.ncl.2005.10.007CrossRefPubMed

Wijdicks EFM, Hijdra A, Young GB, Bassetti CL, Wiebe S: Practice Parameter: Prediction of outcome in comatose survivors after cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Neurology 2006, 67: 203-210. 10.1212/01.wnl.0000227183.21314.cdCrossRefPubMed

Title: Can a simple blood test quantify brain injury?
Authors: Stephan A Mayer
Guillermo Linares
Publication date: 01-08-2009
Publisher: BioMed Central
Published in: Critical Care / Issue 4/2009
Electronic ISSN: 1364-8535
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/cc7929

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Can a simple blood test quantify brain injury?

Abstract

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Abstract

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