Citation

Rodrigues Filho EM, Simon DH, Ikuta N, Klovan C, Dannebrock F, de Oliveira CO, Regner A. J. Neurotrauma 2014; 31(19): 1639-1646.

Affiliation

ULBRA, Laboratório de Biomarcadores do Trauma, Canoas, RS, Brazil ; vitangel@terra.com.br.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2013.3178

PMID

24827371

Abstract

Trauma is the leading cause of death under 45 years worldwide and up to 50% of trauma fatalities are due to brain injury. Prediction of outcome is one of the major problems associated with severe TBI and research efforts have focused on the investigation of biomarkers with prognostic value following TBI. Therefore, our aim was to investigate whether cell-free DNA concentrations correlated to short-term primary outcome (survivor or death) and GCS scores following severe TBI. A total of 188 victims of severe TBI were enrolled in this prospective study, outcome variables comprised: survival and neurological assessment using the GCS at ICU discharge. Control blood samples were obtained from 25 healthy volunteers. Peripheral venous blood was collected at admission in the ICU. Plasma DNA was measured using a real-time quantitative PCR assay for the β-globin gene. There was correlation between higher DNA levels and both fatal outcome and lower hospital admission GCS scores. Plasma DNA concentrations at the chosen cut-off point (≥171,381 kilogenomes-equivalents/L) predicted mortality with a specificity of 90% and a sensitivity of 43%. Logistic regression analysis showed that elevated plasma DNA levels were independently associated with death (p<0.001). In conclusion, high cell-free DNA concentration was a predictor of short-term mortality following severe TBI.

Language: en