Serum biomarker concentrations and outcome after pediatric traumatic brain injury

Predicting outcome after pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) is important for providing information to families and prescribing rehabilitation services. The study objective was to assess whether biomarkers concentrations obtained at the time of injury are associated with outcome. Serial serum concentrations of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), S100B and myelin basic protein (MBP) were measured in 152 children with acute TBI. Outcome was assessed with the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score and/or GOS-Extended Pediatric (GOS-E Peds). Spearman's rank correlation and binary logistic regression assessed the relationship between biomarker concentrations and outcome. For all biomarkers and time points, higher biomarker concentrations were associated with worse outcome. Initial and peak NSE concentrations and initial MBP concentrations were more strongly correlated with outcome in children <= 4 years compared with those > 4 years of age. Using binary logistic regression to evaluate the simultaneous affect of all biomarkers on outcome, there was significant overall model fit predicting a dichotomous GOS from biomarker concentrations with a 77% correct classification rate and a negative and positive predictive value of 97% and 75%, respectively. We conclude that NSE, S100B, and MBP concentrations obtained at the time of TBI may be useful in predicting outcome. Future studies should focus on assessing the differential benefit of biomarkers compared with clinical variables and in assessing a continuous rather than categorical outcome variable.